Citation

Tarrants WE. Highw. Res. News 1968; (31): 52-63.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1968, National Research Council, Highway Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Some of the myths and misconceptions in traffic safety are reviewed and discussed to identify the countermeasure areas where payoff is greatest in terms of injury and death reduction. It is emphasized that the end results of injury and death are influenced by many factors in addition to those that determine the likelihood of crash. The problems of the social drinker, the man behind the wheel, pedestrian control and driver education are discussed. Two major problems in developing a prevention effort are the lack of data on particular causes and the difficulty of cross- classifying data that do exist. Examples are given showing that accidents have multiple causes and that multiple remedial actions are necessary for prevention. Cost effectiveness evaluation are possible only by using various sets of countermeasures applied in combination, since there is no way of assessing the value of various trade-offs among countermeasures on an a priori basis. Emphasis is placed on the need for greater statistical analysis of accidents and the need to increase the reliability of statistics.

Language: en