The role of values in road safety culture: Examining the valuation of freedom to take risk,risk taking and accident involvement in three countries

National focus on individual freedom versus paternalistic values is a fundamental theme, which defines the status of traffic safety in different countries. The present study examines the role of such values in road safety culture based on survey data from car and bus drivers from three countries with distinctly different road safety records: Norway (N = 596), Israel (N = 129) and Greece (N = 386). While Norway has the highest road safety level in Europe, and Israel also performs better than the EU average, the road safety level in Greece was far below the EU average. As these positions reflect differences in policies and national regulations in drivers’ freedom to take risk, we hypothesize a higher focus on individual freedom to take risk and lower focus on paternalism among the Greek drivers. Results indicate, in accordance with our hypothesis, that the Greek drivers value freedom to take risk in traffic higher than drivers from Norway and Israel. Greek drivers also expect higher levels of risk taking from other drivers in their country, they report higher levels of risky driving themselves, and are more often involved in accidents. Thus, it seems that values have an important role in Road Safety Culture (RSC), legitimizing and motivating risky driving, which are related to accidents. We found, however, contrary to our hypotheses, that the Greek drivers also had the most paternalistic attitudes among the drivers in the three countries. In the present paper, we try to solve this Greek paradox.     

The impact of sleep quality,fatigue and safety climate on the perceptions of accident risk among seafarers

IntroductionSeafaring is an extremely demanding profession that takes place in one of the most dangerous work environments possible. The unpredictable and demanding working conditions foster a high potential for risks and accidents.ObjectivesTo examine how sleep quality, fatigue and safety climate combine to influence perceptions of risk among seafarers.MethodParticipants were 151 seafarers working in the deck or machine departments on board 11 ships belonging to a Norwegian company. Questionnaires were administered at two different time points, approximately one week apart.ResultsPerceptions of risk of personal injuries and ship accidents increase when seafarers are fatigued. We also found that fatigue is related to poor sleep quality and that safety climate predicted both sleep quality and fatigue one week later.ConclusionsThe findings point to the importance for maritime organizations to be cognizant of the causes and consequences of fatigue among their employees, and that that policies and prioritizations are being perceived and interpreted by seafarers and may influence their sleep quality and vigilance when working at sea.     

Gun safety management with patients at risk for suicide

Guns in the home are associated with a five-fold increase in suicide. All patients at risk for suicide must be asked if guns are available at home or easily accessible elsewhere, or if they have intent to buy or purchase a gun. Gun safety management requires a collaborative team approach including the clinician, patient, and designated person responsible for removing guns from the home. A call-back to the clinician from the designated person is required confirming that guns have been removed and secured according to plan. The principle of gun safety management applies to outpatients, inpatients, and emergency patients, although its implementation varies according to the clinical setting.     

Cultural foundations of safety culture: A comparison of traffic safety culture in China,Japan and the United States

Understanding how to assess the influence of culture on traffic safety is important for improving traffic safety globally. Traffic safety culture is embedded in the larger context of country’s cultural norms and values, producing different safety outcomes even when other factors are similar. The current work examines how culture influences traffic safety outcomes in three of the largest automobile countries in the world, but which have very different cultural values and which also have very different traffic safety outcomes: China, Japan and the United States. China has an emerging driver population and cultural values that result in aberrant driving behaviors and “scrambling” to gain the right of way, producing a high number of crashes. Japan has an established driver culture, but an emphasis on reducing risk, which results in a lower rate of crashes. The United States, with the most established “car culture”, has an historical and cultural view of the car as a representation of freedom, leading to choices that result in higher crash rates than many countries around the world. The current work explores these cultural underpinnings for traffic safety culture in each country by establishing the historical basis for a traffic culture, examining road, vehicle engineering and legal standards, and reviewing available crash data and data on safety attitudes. These countries are compared across the different dimensions to establish unique cultural influences on traffic safety.     

基于管理者安全管理行动的高风险企业安全氛围改善

随着系统可靠性的提高,高风险企业超过三分之二的事故原因涉及人的因素。员工不安全行为是系统失效的触发因素,潜藏的社会情境因素(如安全氛围)是“常驻的病原体”,因此探索并改善影响安全行为的社会情境因素是有效提升组织安全的关键。在众多的情境因素中,安全氛围对安全绩效的积极影响已得到充分的文献支持,但对如何改善安全氛围的探索却有限。本项目围绕管理者对安全的承诺这一安全氛围的核心维度,基于信号理论提出直接安全管理行动是体现管理者安全承诺的重要途径,并在探索主管和经理关键安全管理行动对团队和组织安全氛围影响的基础上开展相应的干预研究。具体而言,在团队层面,探索改善主管关键安全管理行动对团队安全氛围提升的有效性;在组织和团队两个层面,探索改善经理的关键安全管理行动对同时提升组织和团队安全氛围的有效性。研究结果预期可以在安全管理实践中推广应用。     

Walkability,risk perception and safety assessment among urban college pedestrians in Kuwait

The aim of this study was to examine what factors worried people as pedestrians in Kuwait. It aimed also to assess the correlation between perceived risk and worry and between worry and walking frequencies. The focus of this study was on urban college pedestrians as one of the most vulnerable population groups that suffered recently from many safety problems related to walking activities. This is relevant since most of the college’s students in Kuwait University are female (almost 90%). To do so, an online questionnaire was conducted to assess how respondents perceived risk and how worried they were when exposed to different hazards (traffic accident, harassment, and theft). Another online questionnaire was used to calculate the walkability index at different areas of Kuwait. From the results, it was shown that worry had influenced the pedestrian’s behavior as walking frequencies had dropped among respondents who had higher levels of worry. Cohen’s d showed a large difference in worry levels between those who walk daily and those who rarely walk. People reporting high levels of worry from experiencing accidents, harassment, and theft during nighttime were around 15 to 20% higher than those during daytime. The results from the second questionnaire showed that the area with the highest walkability index was Sabah Al-Salem as it was rated as the safest, the highest density of interesting businesses, and the best public transit area. These observations showed that major improvements are needed in Kuwait to increase the modal shift from cars to walking. In order to induce healthier lifestyles and improve the pro-environment by reducing the emissions linked to car usage.     

Panic and posttraumatic stress disorder: implications for culture, risk, and treatment

The articles in this special series reflect productive cross-fertilization between the fields of panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. The purpose of this commentary is to elucidate the implications of this research for the broader themes of culture, risk factors, and treatment.     

Adolescent suicide, gender, and culture: A rate and risk factor analysis

The current paper provides a comprehensive research review of gender differences in rates of and risk factors for adolescent suicidal behavior in four main U.S cultural subgroups: African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. The paper highlights substantial findings from the most recent literature and provides direction for future research and clinical work. The data presented suggest that clinicians and interventionists relying on nonfatal expressions of suicide will continue to fail to identify adolescent males at risk for suicide, as females are more likely to report suicide ideation and attempts across all cultural groups reviewed. We conclude that researchers and clinicians should utilize indirect, broad measures of suicide proneness, as opposed to the traditional direct self-report tools. Although past research has examined cultural and gender differences in risk factors for suicidal behavior, these investigations have been primarily isolated from each other. Therefore, we sought to examine adolescent suicidal behavior and how it operates as a function of both gender and culture.     

Using the Job Demands-Resources model to investigate risk perception, safety climate and job satisfaction in safety critical organizations

Using the Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R) as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the relationship between risk perception as a job demand and psychological safety climate as a job resource with regard to job satisfaction in safety critical organizations. In line with the JD-R model, it was hypothesized that high levels of risk perception is related to low job satisfaction and that a positive perception of safety climate is related to high job satisfaction. In addition, it was hypothesized that safety climate moderates the relationship between risk perception and job satisfaction. Using a sample of Norwegian offshore workers (N = 986), all three hypotheses were supported. In summary, workers who perceived high levels of risk reported lower levels of job satisfaction, whereas this effect diminished when workers perceived their safety climate as positive. Follow-up analyses revealed that this interaction was dependent on the type of risks in question. The results of this study supports the JD-R model, and provides further evidence for relationships between safety-related concepts and work-related outcomes indicating that organizations should not only develop and implement sound safety procedures to reduce the effects of risks and hazards on workers, but can also enhance other areas of organizational life through a focus on safety.     

Personality subtypes of young drivers. Relationship to risk-taking preferences, accident involvement, and response to a traffic safety campaign

The present study aimed at identifying subtypes of young drivers (N=2524) and evaluate how these responded to a traffic safety campaign. On basis of a cluster analysis of personality measures, six subtypes of young drivers were identified. The subtypes were found to differ on self-reported risky driving behaviour, attitudes towards traffic safety, risk perception, estimation of own driving skills, and accident involvement. Two of the subtypes were identified as high-risk groups in traffic. The first high-risk group consisted of mostly men, characterised by low levels of altruism and anxiety, and high levels of sensation-seeking, irresponsibility, and driving related aggression. The second high-risk group reported high sensation seeking, aggression, anxiety, and driving anger. The subtypes were also found to differ on how they evaluated and responded to the traffic safety campaign. The results indicated that the campaign seemed to appeal most to the low-risk subtypes. Gender differences within each subtype were also found on the different traffic related measures, as well as on response to the campaign. It is concluded that young drivers should not be treated as a homogenous group pertaining to road safety. Practical suggestions on how to promote safe driving among these subtypes are also discussed.     

Eco driving as a road safety measure: Before and after study of three companies

This study reports the results of a natural before and after study of economic driving and use of fleet management system recording driving style as a road safety measure. The study includes three companies studied on three occasions, in: 1) 2013, 2) 2018 and 3) 2020. Surveys in all the companies were conducted in 2013 and 2018, and interviews were conducted at all three time points. Two of the companies (Company B and C) started working actively with fleet management system as a measure for economic driving between measurement time points 1 and 2. The third company had such a measure in place before time point 1 (Company A). Company A is therefore used as a “control company”. The study indicates that measures for economic driving in general and fleet management systems in particular have a good effect on road safety and economy. This applies to fleet management systems focusing on aspects of economic and safe driving. The accident risk in Company B and C decreased significantly in the post-measurement in 2018, and the safety culture improved. The interview data supports the conclusion of lower accident risk. The discussion indicates that these results cannot be explained by referring to other safety measures during the period, changes in framework conditions, demographic changes in the samples, or a decrease in the risk of property damage accidents with heavy goods vehicles during the study period. However, it is concluded that implementing safety management systems have better effect on road safety than fleet management systems, because Company A, which has the former, has a higher level of road safety than the other two companies.     

Examining behavioral and attitudinal differences among groups in their traffic safety culture

The paper explores the concept that, for a given population, there is not a single “traffic safety culture,” but rather a set of alternative cultures in which the individual driver might belong. There are several different cultures of dangerous driving behavior and each might need a separate strategy for intervention or amelioration. First, the paper summarizes the over-arching theory explored in the research, which applies Multi-group Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) in a modification of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in the explanation of Risky Driving Behavior, based on ten observed explanatory factors. Second, we apply Latent Class Cluster (LCC) segmentation to the full sample, revealing four segments: one cluster reflecting a “Low Risk Driving Safety Group” and three clusters describing three different groups of problematic drivers. We first apply MSEM to two groups; the “Low Risk Driving Safety Group,” and the “High Risk Driving Safety Group,” defined as the members of the three problematic clusters together, revealing how a “Low Risk” culture differs from the “High Risk” culture, with the relative importance of the TPB explanatory factors varying sharply between the two groups. Finally, the three problematic clusters are profiled for demographics and their mean scores for the ten observed explanatory factors. Each of the clusters is reviewed in terms of responses to selected survey questions. Three separate and distinct dangerous traffic safety cultures emerge: first, a culture of risky driving dominated by excitement seeking and optimism bias; a second dominated by denial of societal values; and a third characterized by its propensity to find rational justifications for its speeding behavior. The paper applies two research methods together: LCC segmentation divides our sample into meaningful subgroups, while MSEM reveals both within-group analysis of variance and between-group differences in safety attitudes and outcomes. The paper concludes that the combination of the segmentation powers of the LCC and the analysis powers of the MSEM provides the analyst with an improved understanding of the attitudes and behaviors of the separate groups, all tied back to the over-arching theory underlying the research.     

An evaluation of speed management measures in Bangladesh based upon alternative accident recording,speed measurements,and DOCTOR traffic conflict observations

With 21,000 people annually killed in road traffic (estimated figure by World Health Organization), Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates in the world. Vulnerable road users (VRUs) account for over 50% of road traffic casualties, and 70% of casualties occur in rural areas. As in many Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), the official road accident statistics are incomplete and biased.Safe Crossings (Netherlands) and the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) (Bangladesh) received permission from the Bangladesh government in 2014 to design and implement an integrated speed management program (consisting of a combination of small-scale infrastructural measures, active community involvement and road user education) at three locations where a national highway intersects small communities. The infrastructural countermeasures to improve road safety consisted of speed humps, rumble strips, signs and road markings and were designed following the Dutch road design guidelines. In a Before–After study design, we used a combination of three research methods to monitor and evaluate the road safety interventions. We created our own traffic accident recording system with trained local record keepers, we conducted laser-gun speed measurements of motorized traffic (both at intervention and control locations), and we applied the Dutch Objective Conflict Technique for Operation and Research (DOCTOR) for observing serious traffic conflicts at the intervention locations. The latter was based upon DOCTOR scores from video recordings of the behaviour at the three experimental locations Before and After the interventions.Prior to installing the intervention program, the three locations combined had, on average, about 100 serious accidents, 10 deaths, and 200 injured people on a yearly basis. In April 2015, all infrastructural measures were completed. In the after period (till the end of January 2016), the alternative accident recording system showed a 66% reduction in the number of serious accidents, a 73% reduction in the number of injured people, and a 67% reduction in the number of people killed.The unobtrusive laser-gun speed measurements resulted in a net reduction of 13.3 km/h (or 20% in relative terms) on average at the intervention locations by taking the general speed development at the control locations into account. According to Nilsson’s power law this would result in a 59% reduction of the number of people killed, well in line with the actual accident figures.The total number of serious conflicts (only DOCTOR scores 3, 4, and 5) was significantly reduced from 64 serious conflicts per location in a 4.5 h period Before to 29 serious conflicts in the After period, on average (Poisson distributed variable, p < 0.01), or a 55% reduction in relative terms. By including the traffic volumes, the reduction in conflict risk overall is 54%. Moreover, the severity of conflicts was reduced in the After period with only one most severe conflict (DOCTOR score 5) left. Buses represent the largest portion of road users involved in serious conflicts at all three locations, followed by cars and CNGs (Compressed Natural Gas vehicle). By far, the most frequently occurring conflict is of the type head-on conflict between an overtaking bus or car that is encountering a road user in opposite direction (for the greater part a CNG).All three evaluation measures point to a similar impact of the intervention program and unveil an improvement in road safety between 54% and 60%. The speed-reducing measures indeed considerably reduce the speed of motorized traffic, both the mean speed and 85th percentile values, both the number and severity of serious conflicts are reduced, and the actual number of accidents has decreased. It appears that Nilsson’s power law for the relation between a difference in mean speed and the change in the number of accidents also applies to LMICs.Speed management measures as common in high-income countries appear to be also effective in LMICs. For evaluation purposes of road safety impacts, a Traffic Conflicts Technique approach (also developed in high-income countries) seems valid and effective as well for application in LMICs.As there are thousands of traffic black spots with similar characteristics as the three intervention locations in Bangladesh, this integrated approach may well offer similar road safety improvements elsewhere.     

A review of climate and culture research in selling and sales management

Despite the extensive literature on organizational climate and culture and their impact on an organization's sales activities, the diversity of theoretical perspectives makes it difficult for sales professionals and scholars to understand the effect of specific climate- and culture-related factors on the performance of salespeople and sales units in an organization. The objective of this article is to clarify the conceptual underpinnings of organizational climate and culture research within the sales context through an extensive review of extant literature. In doing so, we offer a critical review of research on organizational climate and culture, a conceptual frame for viewing the literature across different levels of analysis, and specific questions to guide future research. We also make a case for more research on industry-level climate and culture in the sales context.     

Policies and practices of transport companies that promote or hinder the management of driver fatigue

This report describes long-distance transport companies' managerial practices and how these might contribute to on-road driver fatigue. Some companies engaged in practices that were inconsistent with the management of fatigue. Very few had formulated fatigue management policies, but many reported having policies that could aid in managing driver fatigue. However, the potential benefit of such policies was often compromised by their operational practices. This included setting limits on driving time, but failing to communicate them to drivers or take action when drivers exceeded them. Companies were prepared to hire drivers with little industry experience, but did not provide them with education about fatigue. Companies monitored driver fitness for duty and fatigue, but used methods that relied on others' observations or investigations after a problem had arisen. There was also acknowledgement that punitive action could be taken against drivers who were unfit for duty, or unable to meet the companies' delivery deadlines. Almost all companies had drug and alcohol policies and believed their drivers did not use drugs, though they believed drug use was common in other companies.