The majority of road accidents can be prevented by passive and active safety designs and systems present in today's modem passenger car and by road infrastructure improvements. However, large part of the accident risk depends on the driver status and vigilance, no matter how well the car is equipped and how safe the roads are. It is believed that an underestimated 20% of accidents are due to lack of sleep, inattentiveness and lack of vigilance, which can be summarized under impaired driving. In this study, a driver vigilance monitoring system is developed and its performance is tested applying signal processing, computer vision, and artificial intelligence state-of-the-art methods.

Research to date suggests that mothers determine their children's level of independent mobility and that risk, particularly risks relating to 'stranger danger' and traffic accidents, are decisive in shaping mobility decisions. This research set out to demonstrate that the relationship between mothers, children, risk and mobility is more complex and contested, and requires an in-depth analysis using a theoretical framework based on literature relating to sociocultural theories of risk, feminist approaches to motherhood, social studies of childhood and theories of mobilities emerging from the social sciences. This study disentangles the myriad factors that contribute to mobility decision-making through the application of the concept of mobility history, which utilises and critiques theories of mobility and risk through a gender and generational perspective. The research applies recently developed visual methods of social research to capture and analyse both affective and experiential responses to everyday risk; in particular it facilitates the analysis of children's demonstration of agency in this relatively unregulated temporal and spatial context. The research adopted a qualitative, mixed method approach and was based in Brighton in southeast England. Twenty five young people filmed their journey to or from school, describing their feelings and responses to space as they travelled. This was followed by film elicitation interviews, providing further data to analyse the beliefs and meanings attached to risk and mobility. In addition, in-depth interviews with the eighteen mothers provided an insight into the role of personal biography in mobility decision-making; the importance of social networking and local cultures of risk; the impacts of lifestage on risk landscapes; and the inextricable links between risk and cultures of mothering and blame. The research found that both mothers and children demonstrate complex patterns of decision-making in terms of their journey to school mobilitites and the concept of mobility history enables the exploration of not only the relevant influential factors in mobility decision-making, but also a way of interrelating these factors and thereby explaining their relative impacts in different temporal and spatial contexts. Mobility histories are contingent on a number of socio-cultural factors including gender and generation, which are the focus of this study. In addition, the thesis has shown that the application of video and film elicitation interviews is a valuable research tool in researching with children as they can: be empowering; participative; facilitate both reflexivity and contextualisation; allow the analysis of non verbal responses; and facilitate the triangulation of data.

The aberrant behaviour of drivers is regarded as the most significant contributory factor in road traffic accidents in Pakistan. This research is founded on the premise that personal attitudes are key determinant of driving behaviours, and aims to identify the key socio-cognitive determinants of aberrant driving in response to the lack of road safety research in the country. A multi-method approach is taken and three studies have been carried out. Study 1, a qualitative study, based on interviews, provides a common understanding of the road safety issues in Pakistan. Study 2, a quantitative study, used the results of Study 1 to generate an Attitudinal Questionnaire (AQ) which was inspired by the Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB: Ajzen 1991), and a modified Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ: Lawton et al. 1997) focusing on intentional traffic violations. The study obtained self-reports of attitudes, norms, perceived control and opinion of drivers regarding a number of road traffic violations and enforcement as well as their aberrant behaviours. The responses to the statements in the questionnaires were first factor analysed to identify underlying attitudinal and behavioural constructs. Later, Cluster Analysis used attitudinal constructs to group drivers into four distinct clusters, namely the autonomous, opportunists, regulators and risk-averse. In Study 3, the real-world driving behaviours of a sample of the drivers in each of the four clusters were observed using the Wiener Fahrprobe (WF: Risser 1985) technique. The collective results from the studies indicate that the behaviours of drivers are interpretable in relation to their attitudes, and are partly influenced by their socio- demographic characteristics and driving environment. Specifically, attitudes towards enforcement and rule-compliance appear to be the strongest determinant of behaviours of drivers in Pakistan. Results in particular indicate that being affluent, female and student negatively influence driving behaviours in the country. The research also examines the suitability and applicability ofthe AQ, DBQ, and the WF techniques and methods within a Pakistani context. Finally, the research findings are used to recommend targeted as well as general information-based road safety solutions.

The DFT statistics (2010) revealed that red light running behaviour causes approximately 10 casualties per day in the UK, which is 3.4% higher than the previous year (2009). There has been uncertainty about the reasons for these violations; past literature has suggested that it could be due to insufficient amber duration or factors associated with the road environment, drivers and driving behaviour. Despite the underlying causes of these violations, red light running behaviour has been found to be more prevalent amongst younger drivers. A driving decision behaviour framework that captures continuously driver speed and acceleration performance, and their decisions was proposed. This research identifies contextual variables that can be used to predict driver’s decisions at junctions during the amber onset (such as presence of pedestrians and heavy vehicles). In particular, drivers were more likely to cross the junction when there was a vehicle directly ahead of them. Studies of drivers were conducted in a STISIM driving simulator. A methodology was developed to categorise driver responses as safe or unsafe, and to systematically assess the performances of different interventions. The advanced signal intervention (with a set of advanced signals placed upstream on the same approach of the original traffic light displaying the impending signal status from the next second) was the most effective intervention to increase stopping decision (with maximum deceleration rate < 4.9m/s2) without elevating driver uncertainty at junctions. The flashing amber intervention (with a standalone flashing amber light adjacent to the original traffic light activated 1s prior to the amber onset) however seemed to encourage drivers to stop early. Drivers braked significantly earlier when compared to other interventions and the control condition (i.e. baseline scenario). The extended amber intervention (with 4s amber phase) has slightly reduced unsafe stopping behaviour when compared to the control condition, but the intervention also increased driver uncertainty. 70% among the stopping decisions were categorised as unsafe (with maximum deceleration rate > 4.9m/s2), and therefore may not be recommended. The positive effects of the interventions to reduce violations were negated at urban junctions, which suggest that red light countermeasures may not be required at urban junctions. The findings also revealed a slower braking response time to the interventions when the drivers were within close proximity to another vehicle, thus highlighting the contextual effects of their preceding vehicle as suggested from the observational study. Future research should be extended to assess the performance of the advanced signal intervention to different levels of traffic flow and turning manoeuvres. Larger sample of drivers should be employed for improved reliability.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that road traffic accidents represent the third leading cause of ‘death and disease’ worldwide. Many countries have, therefore, launched safety campaigns that are intended to reduce road traffic accidents by increasing public awareness. In almost every case, however, a reduction in the total number of fatalities has not been matched by a comparable fall in the total frequency of road traffic accidents. Low severity incidents remain a significant problem. One possible explanation is that these road safety campaigns have had less effect than design changes. Active safety devices such as anti-lock braking, and passive measures, such as side impact protection, serve to mitigate the consequences of those accidents that do occur. A number of psychological phenomena, such as attribution error, explain the mixed success of road safety campaigns. Most drivers believe that they are less likely to be involved in an accident than other motorists. Existing road safety campaigns do little to address this problem; they focus on national and regional statistics that often seem remote from the local experiences of road users. Our argument is that localized road accident information would have better impact on people’s safety awareness. This thesis, therefore, describes the design and development of a software tool to provide the general public with access to information on the location and circumstances of road accidents in a Scottish city. We also present the results of an evaluation to determine whether the information provided by this software has any impact on individual risk perception. A route planing experiment was also carried out. The results from the experiment gives more positive feedback that road users would consider accident information if such information was available for them.

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The UN-sponsored international conventions on terrorism and organised crime deal with a specific type of criminality which spreads across national frontiers. The suppression of these crimes is possible through state cooperation in extradition and mutual legal assistance. Hence, the object of these conventions is to facilitate law enforcement cooperation. To achieve this aim, the conventions have established certain mandatory obligations in order to ensure harmony among the legal systems of states parties with a view to make them conducive to law enforcement cooperation. Harmony is needed to satisfy certain requirements of extradition and mutual legal assistance proceedings which necessitate similarity in the legal systems of the requesting and requested states. These requirements can be classified into distinct categories of conditions and procedure. Conditions refer to conditions associated with the principle of reciprocity or exchange of comparable favours, upon which the laws and treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance are based. It demands similar legal prescriptions or equivalent conceptions of justice under the laws of the requesting and requested state with respect to the act concerning which surrender or interrogation is sought. To enable the parties to satisfy conditions, the international conventions impose mandatory obligations to implement their rules concerning jurisdiction, criminalisation and fair treatment. Procedure implies the procedure of applying or executing the enforcement devices of aut dedere aut judicare and confiscation of the proceeds of crime. The application of both these devices necessitates similarity in the laws of the requesting and requested states with respect to procedure of enforcement. Similarity is needed to ensure that a foreign request may not be refused due to the requested state lacking enabling procedural rules or the request not being consistent with its procedural law. To establish similarity, the conventions impose mandatory obligations to implement the mechanisms of aut dedere aut judicare and confiscation of the proceeds of crimes. This thesis critically examines the impact of these obligations on state cooperation in bringing to justice transnational offenders. The central argument of the thesis is that the mandatory obligations under the counter-terrorism and organised crime conventions are required to be implemented in accordance with and, to the extent permissible, under the national law of state parties. Accordingly, when they are translated domestically, they do not achieve a level of harmony, sufficient to facilitate the fulfilment of the requirements of extradition and mutual legal assistance, i.e. ‘double conditions’ and procedural similarity needed to enforce aut dedere aut judicare and confiscation. Resultantly, discretion rests with the requested state to grant or refuse cooperation depending upon its political and diplomatic relations with the requesting state. This contradicts the objective of facilitating law enforcement cooperation in the specific context of borderless or transnational crimes. Following this approach, state cooperation concerning transnational crimes remains as discretionary and as unregulated as cooperation in regard to ordinary crimes. This calls into question the utility of reliance on mandatory obligations as tools to facilitate law enforcement cooperation. As an alternative, some bilateral/regional treaties and domestic laws adopt the strategy of relaxing ‘double conditions’ and simplifying the procedure of applying aut dedere aut judicare and confiscation. This strategy also aims at facilitating law enforcement cooperation; however, it takes the route of regulating the requirements of extradition and mutual legal assistance rather than harmonising national justice systems to make them conducive to their demands. Given that this system carries greater potential for facilitating law enforcement cooperation, this thesis recommends that the makers of the international counter-terrorism and organised crime conventions should substitute or complement the mandatory obligations with it. Significantly, states have, by agreeing not to apply political and fiscal offence exception to extradition and interrogation proceedings involving these crimes, shown their willingness to accept this approach of facilitating law enforcement cooperation in the specific context of transnational crimes.

The growing fatality of road traffic accidents in most cities constitutes a public health challenge. Annually, about 1.24 million people are killed from road accidents, among which more than one fifth of these deaths occur among pedestrians. Pedestrian collisions are even more prevalent in cities that host mass gathering events such as the Hajj. Yet this phenomenon has been neglected within the existing literature. Correspondingly, this research examines the relationship between pilgrims' pedestrian casualties and the land use type in Madinah. The relationship between the land use and pedestrian casualty was determined from pilgrims pedestrian casualty data (N=2204) from 2001 to 2005 supplied by the Madinah Police Department. The accident data is characterized by the personal and socio-demographic attributes of the victims as well as the land use type of the accident. The significant findings from this study show that male pilgrims were over represented in pedestrian casualty in Madinah. This is consistent with other road accident studies in Arab-Muslim countries which also recorded higher male casualty compared to female. Again, more men embark on pilgrimage than their female counterpart. Young pilgrim (12-20's) pedestrians suffer the most casualties; while the least casualty was recorded for child pilgrim pedestrians (<12). In terms of day of the week, the high casualty occurs on Friday which is an important day for prayer that usually cause high incident of traffic and over-crowdedness. Though almost three-quarter of the pilgrim pedestrians sustained their casualties during high season months as most Moslem pilgrims embarks on pilgrimage during this period. However, most pilgrims' pedestrians suffer casualty during non-praying time because during prayer time, most of them would either be in the Mosque or residence fulfilling their obligation to pray, thereby, making them less exposed to pedestrian-vehicle collisions. In modelling the relationship between pilgrims' pedestrians and land use type, quasi-Poisson regression models fitted the accident data better than Negative Binomial regression models. Most of the models developed indicate strong association between pilgrims' pedestrian casualties and commercial and religious land use types. For the major land use types, fatalities were more prevalent in the commercial and religious land use types. In terms of road type, the highest iii casualties occurred on single carriageway-2 lanes and mostly on roads around the Holy site. Whilst the results indicate that there is a greater number of accidents occurring in proximity to junctions or close to T,Y or staggered junctions categories taken together, the large single category of accidents occurred ‘not at junction or within 20 metres of junction. Nevertheless, majority of coefficients for road type and junction details variables were insignificant. Main findings from this research are discussed and suitable recommendations are made to assist policy makers in proffering countermeasures to will help improve safety and reduce accidents. One of the main findings of this research is that the serious accident pattern indicates the need for improved pedestrian facilities for pilgrims. This is the major outcome of the modelling and the analysis in general.

The overall aims of this PhD were to examine what the real effects of injury are on survivors of road crashes and to explore the methods used to assess these effects. Three studies were conducted for this thesis to explore the effects of injury using quality of life outcomes for survivors of road crashes. Study 1 was a prospective follow-up study of 70 road crash survivors with relatively 'minor' injuries. The aim of study 1 was to determine the effects of the crash or injury on quality of life for a 'minor' injury sample over a 1 year follow-up period. Study 2 was a prospective follow-up study of 50 'seriously' injured road crash survivors admitted to hospital as a result of their injuries. Study 3 incorporated the results of study 1 and study 2 to examine the societal burden of injury.

Chaque année de nombreux enfants-piétons sont victimes de collisions avec des véhicules et ce malgré les efforts réalisés pour améliorer les véhicules et les infrastructures. Ces améliorations ont permis une réduction notable des séquelles mais l’étude du comportement des piétons demeure primordiale puisque ce sont ces comportements eux-mêmes qui expliquent la plus grande partie des collisions. Afin de comprendre les comportements et processus mentaux impliqués lors de la navigation urbaine, nous nous sommes intéressés aux quatre types d’études s’intéressant à la navigation urbaine infantile : (1) les études traitant des circonstances et facteurs accidentogènes, (2) celles s’intéressant aux moments clés auxquels le risque d’accident est le plus important, (3) celles traitant des compétences nécessaires au piéton pour naviguer de manière sûre, (4) et enfin celles, plus récentes, qui se centrent sur la perception du risque. Enfin, pour compléter notre approche, nous nous sommes tournés vers les dispositifs permettant de développer la compétence de piéton. Les objectifs de cette thèse sont triples : mieux comprendre l’impact de certains facteurs individuels et environnementaux sur l’exploration visuelle de scènes urbaines par les enfants, c’est-à-dire caractériser ce que « regarde » un enfant durant sa navigation urbaine, appréhender les différences développementales en terme de recherche d’information, et finalement, mesurer les différences interindividuelles et intraindividuelles durant le processus de prise de décision chez l’enfant-piéton. L’approche empirique de cette thèse s’articule autour de trois études complémentaires, alliant approche expérimentale et approche de terrain. Dans la première étude, 125 enfants âgés de 7 à 8 ans participant à une journée de prévention routière, ont été sollicités. Cette étude avait pour but de recueillir, par le biais de dessins réalisés par les enfants, des données qualitatives sur la représentation mentale de l’environnement urbain chez l’enfant-piéton. La deuxième étude a porté sur 62 participants, 21 adultes et 41 enfants âgés de 3 à 11 ans. Le protocole impliquait une tâche de prise de décision de franchissement de chaussée à l’aide de photographies. Dans l’objectif d’étudier la stratégie d’exploration visuelle en lien avec la prise de décision, cette étude avait pour but de recueillir des données oculométriques ainsi que de le temps de prise de décision. Enfin, pour notre dernière étude, nous nous sommes concentrés spécifiquement sur l’étude du processus décisionnel chez l’enfant à l’aide de la chronométrie mentale. Nous avons donc réalisé une expérimentation comptant 255 participants âgés de 5 à 11 ans. Le protocole comportait une tâche de prise de décision de franchissement de chaussée sur photographies d’un environnement urbain où la densité informationnelle variait. L’ensemble des résultats sont discutés autour de trois principaux points : (i) les mécanismes d’inhibition chez le piéton, (ii) les sources d’informations utilisées par l’enfant pour prendre ses décisions avec notamment la place d’autrui et (iii), les dispositifs de formation à destination des enfants-piétons / Each year, lots of pedestrian children get injured by vehicles, in spite of efforts made to improve vehicles and safety infrastructures.These improvements have drastically reduced damages on casualties, though the study of pedestrian behaviour remains crucial since most collisions are caused by pedestrian behaviour themselves. In order to understand mental processes and behaviours involved during movement in an urban context, four types of studies dealing with pedestrian children behaviours were analysed : (1) studies about accident-prone circumstances and factors, (2) studies about most likely key-moment for accidents to occur, (3) studies about key competencies needed by pedestrians to move safely in urban traffic, and finally (4), most recent studies about the perception of risk. With the aim of having a comprehensive approach, attention was also drawn on mechanisms that could improve pedestrians' skills.Therefore, this thesis' goals are multiple. First, to define what a children would look at when moving across urban traffic. Second, to understand how behaviours toward the search for information vary. Finally, to measure inter- and intra-individual differences during the decision-making process of pedestrian children. The empirical approach of this thesis relies on three complementary studies, mixing both empirical and in-the-field approach. The first study involved 125 7-to-8 year old children, who were attenting a road-awareness-day. Children were asked to answer a question with a drawing. The purpose of this first study was to gather qualitative data about how pedestrian children perceive the urban environment. The second study was done on 62 attendees, including 21 adults and 41 3-to-11 year old children. The protocol consisted in showing attendees photographs, and asking them do decide to cross the street or not. The purpose of this second study was to collect eye-based and decision-making-time data, in order to highlight the link between visual exploration and decision-making process. The thirs study focused specifically on pedestrian children's decision-making process, using mental chronometry. An experimentation was led on 255 5-to-11 year old participants. The protocol was also about asking attendees to make a decision based on photographs; but this time with a varying informational density. All results of the studies mentioned above will be summarized in 3 main topics which are : pedestrians' inhibition mechanisms, information sources (including other people), and finally, training techniques aimed for pedestrian children