Sleepy drivers on a slippery road: A pilot study using a driving simulator.

Sleepy drivers have problems with keeping the vehicle within the lines, and might often need to apply a sudden or hard corrective steering wheel movement. Such movements, if they occur while driving on a slippery road, might increase the risk of ending off road due to the unforgiving nature of slippery roads. We tested this hypothesis.

Women judging: Is a young male drunk driver perceived as more negligent than a young female drunk driver?

Objective: It is well established that young men are the riskiest group of all drivers, and men in general more often drive under the influence of alcohol. However, potentially oversimplified representations such as a "young male problem" and "drunk driving as a male problem" can influence action and reinforce existing attitudes by selectively directing attention to stereotypically consistent behavior. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis of possible bias toward young male drivers in the context of drunk driving.

Bicycle helmet effectiveness is not overstated.

Objective: The objective of this study was to discuss the challenges in estimating bicycle helmet effectiveness from case-control studies of injured cyclists and to estimate helmet effectiveness from cases and available exposure data.

Methods: Data were extracted from studies of cyclists in Seattle; Victoria and New South Wales, Australia; and The Netherlands. Estimates of helmet use were used as exposure to compute relative risks for Seattle and Victorian data.

Examining signs of driver sleepiness, usage of sleepiness countermeasures and the associations with sleepy driving behaviours and individual factors.

The impairing effect from sleepiness is a major contributor to road crashes. The ability of a sleepy driver to perceive their level of sleepiness is an important consideration for road safety as well as the type of sleepiness countermeasure used by drivers as some sleepiness countermeasures are more effective than others. The aims of the current study were to determine the extent that the signs of driver sleepiness were associated with sleepy driving behaviours, as well as determining which individual factors (demographic, work, driving, and sleep-related factors) were associated with using a roadside or in-vehicle sleepiness countermeasure.

Risky driving and recorded driving offences: a 24-year follow-up study.

Permanent individual differences in driver behavior and accident risk have long been under active debate. Cognitive and personality factors have correlated with risky driving indicators in cross-sectional studies, and prospective cohort studies are now increasingly revealing early antecedents of risky behavior and injury mortality in adult age, with connections to stable personality traits. However, long-term stability in driver behavior or accident involvement has not been documented in a general driver population.

Alcohol ignition interlocks in all new vehicles: a broader perspective.

Objective: To discuss the implications of widespread implementation of alcohol ignition interlocks.

Method: We base our discussion on data from Finland including crash statistics and surveys collected from criminal justice professionals and general driving population.

Results: Alcohol ignition interlocks are an effective preventive measure against drunk driving when installed in the vehicles of convicted drunk drivers.

Night work, fatigued driving and traffic law: the case of police officers.

Given the well-known difficulties in defining and detecting fatigue, it is a real challenge to incorporate it into either traffic or criminal law. Finnish traffic law forbids fatigued driving "only" on a general level concerning the driver's fitness to drive. We present several comments from Finnish traffic and local police officers regarding their own experiences of driving while fatigued.

Convicted of fatigued driving: who, why and how?

Fatigue is a major cause of road traffic accidents. However, due to the blurred concept of fatigue and the lack of reliable testing devices (cf. the breath analyzer for alcohol levels), it is extremely difficult to incorporate fatigue in operationalized terms into either traffic or criminal law.

Fell asleep and caused a fatal head-on crash? A case study of multidisciplinary in-depth analysis vs. the court.

Objectives: Recognizing road accidents as sleep/fatigue-related is a challenging task due to the lack of validated criteria and reliable devices (cf. breath analyzer for alcohol levels). Consequently, it is difficult to incorporate fatigue in operationalized terms into either traffic or criminal law.

Fatal road accidents among Finnish military conscripts: fatigue-impaired driving.

The aims of the present study were to determine the current prevalence of personal car usage for holiday trips among Finnish conscripts and to analyze conscripts' fatal road accidents. The data included questionnaire data collected from 259 young conscripts at a garrison in southeastern Finland and data on 46 fatal road accidents caused by conscripts during the years 1991-2004, extracted from the national database of fatal road accidents studied in depth. The questionnaire data showed that one-third (35.

Seasonal variation of falling asleep while driving: An examination of fatal road accidents.

Road accidents related to sleep show a clear time-of-day pattern. Following the previous finding that such accidents in Finland happen more often (absolutely and relatively) during the summer months, especially during the afternoon, the main aim of this study was to reveal the factors behind such seasonality. The data included the computerized database of the Finnish fatal road accident investigation system restricted to nonprofessional, non-intoxicated car drivers (N=1464) and sample of the original folders (N=101).

Females do not have more injury road accidents on Friday the 13th.

Background: This study reinvestigated the recent finding that females - but not males - die in traffic accidents on Friday the 13th more often than on other Fridays (Näyhä S: Traffic deaths and superstition on Friday the 13th. Am J Psychiatry 2002, 159: 2110-2111). The current study used matched setting and injury accident data base that is more numerous than fatality data.

Sleep-related fatal vehicle accidents: characteristics of decisions made by multidisciplinary investigation teams.

Objectives: To analyze factors that explain the attribution of crash causes as sleep-related by accident investigators.

Design: Analysis of national database of fatal road accidents studied in depth. All nonprofessional nonintoxicated car drivers responsible for a fatal accident from 1991 to 2001 were included (N = 1464).