In a world overwhelmed by information, how can news media messages and their stewards break through that barrier and compel us to sit up and take notice? Much depends upon a story’s meaning and relevance to our own lives. Improving these qualities of communication requires a thorough knowledge of a complex arena and some means with which to reach its gatekeepers and, ultimately, penetrate its v...

BACKGROUND This study examined both objective and subjective measures of driving behaviors occurring in the past 5 years for 47 individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 22 healthy controls (HC), matched for age, gender, education, and years of driving experience. RESULTS Overall, subtle descriptive differences in driving characteristics were observed between the two groups. However, ...

Approximately 40% of all drowning deaths involve a motor vehicle. Regardless of its significance as a cause of flood-related mortality, there is continued prevalence of driving through flooded waterways in Australia and worldwide. We aimed to understand the motivational determinates of driving through flooded waterways in low and high-risk scenarios by utilizing an augmented theory of planned b...

This paper documents the application of the Conway-Maxwell-Poisson (COM-Poisson) generalized linear model (GLM) for modeling motor vehicle crashes. The COM-Poisson distribution, originally developed in 1962, has recently been re-introduced by statisticians for analyzing count data subjected to over- and under-dispersion. This innovative distribution is an extension of the Poisson distribution. ...

BACKGROUND With limited resources available, injury prevention efforts need to be targeted both geographically and to specific populations. As part of a pediatric injury prevention project, data was obtained on all pediatric medical and injury incidents in a fire district to evaluate geographical clustering of pediatric injuries. This will be the first step in attempting to prevent these injuri...

PURPOSE Traffic injuries are an important public health problem in Wisconsin. This paper examines geographic variations in the incidence and case fatality of traffic injuries, and evaluates proximity to Level I/II trauma care as a predictor of case fatality. METHODS Data on all persons injured in motor vehicle crashes on Wisconsin roadways during a 10-year period (1992-2001) were obtained fro...

INTRODUCTION Seat belt use reduces the risk of injuries and fatalities among motor vehicle occupants in a crash, but belt use in rear seating positions is consistently lower than front seating positions. Knowledge is limited concerning factors associated with seat belt use among adult rear seat passengers. METHODS Data from the 2012 ConsumerStyles survey were used to calculate weighted percen...

BACKGROUND Safety concerns are a major barrier to cycling. Intersection and street design variables such as intersection angles and street width might contribute to the severity of crashes and the safety concerns. In this study we examined whether these design variables were associated with bicycle-motor vehicle crashes (BMVC) severity. METHODS Using the geographical information system and la...

BACKGROUND In 2005, the US Congress allocated $612 million for a national Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program to encourage walking and bicycling to schools. We analyzed motor vehicle crash data to assess the effectiveness of SRTS interventions in reducing school-aged pedestrian injury in New York City. METHODS Using geocoded motor vehicle crash data for 168 806 pedestrian injuries in New Yor...

OBJECTIVES To explore the effect of drivers' use of mobile (cell) phones on road safety. DESIGN A case-crossover study. SETTING Perth, Western Australia. PARTICIPANTS 456 drivers aged > or = 17 years who owned or used mobile phones and had been involved in road crashes necessitating hospital attendance between April 2002 and July 2004. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Driver's use of mobile phone a...