The United States averages 40,000 traffic fatalities annually. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Roadside Design Guide cites run-off-the-road crashes as contributing greatly to this statistic, with about one-third of all traffic deaths [1]. This number has remained relatively constant over the past four decades, and despite a major increase in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled has declined. However, this relatively large number of run-off-the-road crashes should remain a major concern in all roadway design. The Highway Safety Act of 1966 marks a defining moment in the history of roadside safety [ ]. Before this point, roadways were only designed for motorists who remained on the roadway, with no regard for driver error. As there was no legislation or guidelines concerning roadside design, roadways constructed prior to 1966 are littered with fixed objects directly off of the edge of pavement. Fortunately, many of these roads have reached their thirty year design lives and have become candidates for improvement. The following report examines roadside crashes on nine Atlanta urban arterial roadways. Accident type, severity, and location for all crashes on these were evaluated. It is found roadside collisions with utility poles and trees were more prone to occur at intersection locations than midblock locations. Also for the studied roadway corridors, on average, roadside collisions were more likely to result in serious injury or fatality. Based on these findings initial recommendations are offer for improving clear zone requirements.

The well-being of tourists or visitors within a destination has, until recently, received little attention. Issues relating to the personal safety and health of the travelling public have been highlighted by a number of high profile incidents of terrorist attacks, large scale natural disasters and life threatening epidemics. While such events are devastating in nature and of great concern, for the majority of travellers, health and personal safety are more likely to be impacted on by illness, being involved in an accident or becoming the victim of crime. This thesis contributes to our existing understanding of how tourism can be affected by incidents by selecting a definable geographical area and investigating the available data from official sources to examine the dimensions, scale and nature of visitor-related incidents of crime, road traffic accidents and emergency health care. This audit was undertaken through collaborative research with the Central Scotland Police Force, the Central Scotland Road Accident Investigation Unit and the National Health Service Forth Valley. Primary research was then undertaken with visitors to the area. This in-depth approach looks beyond existing statistics to probe factors contributing to visitor-related incidents, in relation to existing tourism literature. The results indicate that, visitors experience incidents that differ in nature and type from those experienced by local residents, and the times and places they were most at risk also varied. With visitors accounting for less than 10% of the total population, these differences are not apparent in the overall patterns and, therefore, the particular needs of visitors are unlikely to be met through existing measures. This research has the ability to form the basis of improved measures to benefit visitor health and personal safety even though the nature of the visiting population presents challenges in relation to when, where and how such preventative measures are introduced. Visitors are not homogenous and distinct groupings based on perceptions, attitudes and behaviours were found. Therefore, there is a requirement to examine how incidents impact on visitors by distinguishing them from the overall incident figures, but measures to protect visitors also have to be tailored to take cognisance of typologies of visitors.

The Warsaw Convention 1929 is the first international instrument relating to private international air law. It established a certain uniform set of regulations in the field of international carriage by air. This widely accepted Convention was later amended and supplemented by several instruments in order to adjust and adapt this uniform set of rules to the rapid growth of aviation industry. With the absence of consolidation, the result was total confusion created by the coexistence of multiple legal regimes of the Warsaw System. To modernize and consolidate the instruments of the Warsaw System into one single instrument, the Montreal Convention was adopted on May 28, 1999. / The first two chapters of this thesis explore the Warsaw System and the Montreal Convention. The merits and demerits of the instruments are discussed as well as the future of the Montreal Convention 1999. / In the last chapter, the related legal regimes of Thailand are introduced. A comparative study of the Thai laws and the international Conventions are carried out, with a view to determine the advantages and disadvantages for Thailand of becoming a party to the Conventions governing the international carriage by air. / The conclusion is a call for Thailand to ratify the Montreal Convention 1999 which will soon come into force, as soon as possible.

No description available.

Falls among elderly people have been identified as a significant and serious medical problem confronting a growing number of older people. Falls have been found to be a leading cause of disability, distress, admission to supervised care and death among older persons that pose a serious problem to public health. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for falls in the community-dwelling elderly persons in the Umutara province of Rwanda.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-313). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Αντικείμενο της διατριβής είναι η έρευνα των παραγόντων πρόκλησης των εργατικών ατυχημάτων με το σχεδιασμό και την ανάλυση μιας ολοκληρωμένης μεθόδου διερεύνησης, περιορίζοντας τους παράγοντες σε συγκεκριμένες κατηγορίες με τις αλληλεπιδράσεις τους και την ποσοτικοποίηση των σχέσεών τους. Από την ανάλυση των μοντέλων πρόκλησης, προσδιορίζονται τρεις ομάδες μοντέλων (διαδοχικά, επεξεργασίας της ανθρώπινης πληροφορίας και συστημικά), αναδεικνύεται η αντιστοιχία τους με τις μεθόδους διερεύνησης και προτείνεται ολοκληρωμένο πλαίσιο αξιολόγησης των μεθόδων διερεύνησης με συγκεκριμένα κριτήρια. Παράλληλα, οι έρευνες πεδίου σε διαφορετικά δείγματα εργατικών ατυχημάτων ταυτοποιούν παράγοντες πρόκλησης επιβεβαιώνοντας τη σημερινή έρευνα για άμεσους και έμμεσους παράγοντες χωρίς να λαμβάνεται υπόψη το συνολικό πλαίσιο πρόκλησής τους. Η αξιολόγηση των μεθόδων διερεύνησης και τα αποτελέσματα των ερευνών πεδίου, οδήγησαν στο σχεδιασμό μιας νέας μεθόδου διερεύνησης, η οποία στηρίζεται σε συνδυαστικό μοντέλο πρόκλησης εμπλουτίζοντάς το με τη νομική διάσταση. Η μέθοδος λαμβάνει υπόψη τέσσερις ομάδες παραγόντων: εργασιακούς, ανθρώπινους, οργανωτικούς και νομικούς, οι οποίες διακρίνονται σε υποομάδες με τη βοήθεια σχεδίων ταξινόμησης στοχεύοντας σε μια ολοκληρωμένη διερεύνηση του ατυχήματος. Τα πρώτα αποτελέσματα από την επικύρωση της προτεινόμενης μεθόδου, όσον αφορά στην αξιοπιστία της και την εγκυρότητά της, είναι ενθαρρυντικά για την εφαρμογή της μεθόδου. Ο έλεγχος των υποθέσεων για τη διασφάλιση της εγκυρότητας της μεθόδου, με την ποσοτικοποίηση των σχέσεων των παραγόντων πρόκλησης, όπως ο σχεδιασμός της εργασίας με την κατάρτιση καθώς και η παροχή ανασφαλούς εξοπλισμού με την έλλειψη συμμετοχής των εργαζομένων σε θέματα σχετικά με την εργασία και τα καθήκοντά τους οδηγεί στην πληρέστερη απεικόνιση της πρόκλησης. / This thesis concerns the identification of accident causation factors and their interrelationships with the design and analysis of a structured accident investigation method. The main contribution of the research reported is the development of an evaluation framework of accident investigation methods in terms of their alignment with accident causation models, the design of an investigation method based on the evaluation results and covering the descriptive, revealing, qualitative, quantitative and legal requirements of the investigation and the quantification of the relation between accident causation factors aiming at a more precise structural equation model explaining the occupational accident causation phenomenon. Preliminary research on various samples of accidents identified accident causation factors confirming the current research on immediate and underlying factors without taking into account the whole context of accident causation. The proposed method takes into account four areas: workplace, human, management and legal factors. The method process breaks down the four areas into simpler components with the aid of classification schemes aimed at an integrated accident reconstruction. Results from the application of the proposed method can reveal patterns of associations between factors such as work design and training as well as between provision of unsafe equipment and employee involvement which form the basis to understand complex accident causation mechanisms.

This work describes general view of a traffic accident in order to introdukce non-specific features of traffic accidents. The objective of this work is deeper understanding of this issue, of the difference between the need for improving the participants skills and the repressive measures introduced in the attempt to guarantee the observance of fundamental legal standards.

Um dos temas atuais, principalmente na indústria da construção civil devido ao seu dinamismo, é o de minimizar os acidentes, sejam eles fatais ou não, pois esses eventos podem gerar custos de grandes proporções. É interessante observar que estudos realizados por Henrich (1959) e Bird (1969) não abordam os acidentes na indústria da construção civil de uma forma mais ampla, deixando, assim, uma lacuna. Barkokébas et al. (2003) abordam o tema sob o ponto de vista do custo do acidente. Observando dados do Ministério da Previdência Social (2007) - MPS, verificou-se que em 2006 no Brasil foram gastos 4,44 milhões de reais com acidentes não fatais em todos os setores industriais. Além disso, pode-se verificar nos dados do MPS (2007) que só em 2005 no estado de Pernambuco ocorreram 10.224 acidentes em todas as indústrias e que a construção civil foi responsável por 4,90% desse valor. Esta pesquisa identifica os profissionais que sofreram mais acidentes fatais na indústria da construção civil, mas também os pontos que precisam ser melhorados no setor de segurança e saúde nesse setor produtivo. O objetivo do estudo é identificar as causas dos acidentes fatais no setor da construção civil do estado de Pernambuco, no período de 2002 a 2006, através dos dados do Ministério do Trabalho de Pernambuco, para propor recomendações de caráter corretivo. Para isso, é realizado um levantamento qualitativo e quantitativo dos acidentes fatais da indústria da construção civil junto ao MTE, uma análise do modo de falha e efeito, para propor melhorias para as áreas em que ocorreu maior incidência desse tipo de evento. É interessante observar que no período de 5 (cinco) anos, os acidentes fatais tiveram como principais causas: queda de diferença de nível, choque elétrico, esmagamento/desmoronamento e impacto de materiais. Isso se deve a uma ausência ou a uma insuficiência de supervisão das atividades, a falta ou a inadequação de análise de tarefas, juntamente com outros fatores, que levaram à ocorrência de 37 acidentes fatais. Além disso, profissionais com pouco tempo na função na empresa sofreram um maior número de acidentes / One of the current themes within industry, particularly in civil construction, due to its dynamism, is how to minimize accidents, being fatal or otherwise, because in the event of these happening, it can be very costly. It is interesting to observe, that in relation to accidents, they are commented on in studies by Henrich in 1959 and Bird 1969, but that there is nothing specifically on civil construction. The closest to this area was the study caried out by Barkokébas et al. (2003) which comments on the cost of accidents. It can be observed from data from the Ministerio da Previdencia Social (2007), MPS that in 2006 R$ 4,44 million was paid to those who suffered accidents. In addition, it can be verified that in 2005 in the state of Pernambuco there 10.224 accidents in all industries, and that civil construction was responsible for 4,9% of this total. This research is of importance to civil construction to show, not only the numbers of professionals who suffer accidents, but also the points that need to research is to improved in the area of health and safety in this productive sector. The objective of this research is to indentify the causes of fatal accidents in the civil construction sector in the state of Pernambuco, in the period 2002 to 2006, through data from the Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego, to propose recomendations to reduce these tragedies. To achieve this quantitative and qualitative surveys of fatal acidents in the civil construction industry will be carried out together with MTE. After these surveys na analysis in the type of failure and the effect of event wil be carried out. Looking at the 5 (five) year periad in the civil construction sector, it can be seen that due to the lack or insufificient supervisin of activities, a lack or unsuitable analysis of the taskc together with other factors, 37 fatal accidents have ocorred during this period. Other than this, profissional with little time in the job suffer the most number of accidents

La présente thèse envisage de cerner les comportements des Camerounais sur les routes.En l’occurrence, nous voulons savoir comment les croyances fatalistes, les croyances decontrôle, les croyances au contrôle divin, les croyances et valeurs culturelles, l’explicationnaïve des accidents et la perception du risque peuvent affecter les comportements des usagerset agents du trafic routier au Cameroun. Cinq études sont réalisées dans le cadre de notrethèse. La première étude examine 522 procès-verbaux d’accidents réels et montre qu’unegrande majorité des accidents surviennent dans de bonnes conditions de conduite. De plus, lesconducteurs se rejettent mutuellement la faute, mais s’accordent avec les gendarmes pour direque le comportement des conducteurs est la première cause des accidents de la route auCameroun. Une deuxième étude évalue la variation des comportements en fonction des explicationscausales et des croyances, sur un échantillon de 525 participants. On observe que lesparticipants présentent davantage des comportements sécuritaires lorsqu’ils expliquent lesaccidents par le comportement des conducteurs, mais leurs comportements tendent à êtremoins sécuritaires lorsqu’ils expliquent ceux-ci par des causes externes non contrôlables. Lesexplications causales tendent à être externes aux conducteurs lorsque les participants sontfatalistes, croient qu’ils peuvent affronter les situations de trafic dangereuses sans en êtreinquiété, croient que Dieu contrôle les situations dangereuses auxquelles ils peuvent faire faceou lorsqu’ils adhèrent fortement aux croyances et valeurs culturelles. En particulier, lescroyances et valeurs culturelles qui sont supposées protéger la vie, les croyances fatalistes etles croyances au contrôle divin se distinguent par leur capacité à favoriser l’explication desaccidents par des forces invisibles et à induire des comportements insécuritaires. Enfin, le rôlemédiateur des explications causales se révèlent pour toutes les croyances.A partir d’une quasi-expérimentation réalisée auprès de 444 participants, l’étude 3analyse la variation des explications causales et de l’attitude vis-à-vis des mesures deprévention, en fonction de la pertinence situationnelle, de la pertinence personnelle et de lagravité de l’accident. On observe que les participants ont tendance à fournir des explicationscausales défensives d’autant plus que la situation accidentelle leur est pertinente, qu’ilss’identifient à la victime et que l’accident est grave. De plus ils ont une préférence pour desmesures de prévention orientées vers les conducteurs lorsqu’ils expliquent les accidents par lecomportement de ces derniers. L’étude 4 montre une tendance à adopter des comportements moins sécuritaires lorsque les participants sous-estiment le risque routier. En outre, ces derniers ont tendance à sousestimer le risque lorsqu’ils sont fatalistes alors qu’ils ont davantage peur du risque lorsqu’ils sont attachés à leur identité culturelle. Enfin, les participants ont tendance à se croire capables d’affronter le risque routier sans en être inquiété lorsqu’ils croient que Dieu contrôle lessituations dangereuses ou lorsqu’ils croient aux pratiques culturelles supposées protéger lavie. Dans l’étude 5, on montre que les participants ont tendance à adopter descomportements davantage sécuritaires lorsqu’ils ont une perception élevée du risque etexpliquent les accidents par des causes contrôlables. Par contre, ils se montrent plutôtimprudents sur les routes lorsqu’ils ont une perception élevée du risque et croient que lesaccidents sont causés par des forces invisibles. Les résultats vont dans le sens des travaux antérieurs et sont discutés en rapport avec les connaissances théoriques. Enfin, des suggestions encouragent une prévention fondée sur les croyances de la population cible. / This thesis intends to examine Cameroonians behaviors on the roads. Our objective is toknow how fatalistic beliefs, control beliefs, divine control beliefs, cultural beliefs and values,naive explanation of accidents and risk perception can affect road users and traffic agents’behaviors. Five studies are carried out within the framework of our thesis. The first study examined 522 actual accidents reports and shows that a large majority of accidents occur in good driving conditions. In addition, drivers accused each other of wrongdoing, but agree with the gendarmes that, drivers’ behavior is the main cause of trafic accidents in Cameroon. A second study evaluates the variability of behaviors according to the causal explanations and beliefs, on a sample of 525 participants. It is shown that, participants adopt safer behaviors when they explain accidents by drivers’ behavior, but their behavior tend to be less safe when they explain accidents by external and uncontrollable causes. Causal explanations tend to be external to drivers when participants are fatalists, believe they can face dangerous traffic situations without being worried, believe that God is in control of dangerous situations that they may faced or when they adhere strongly to cultural beliefs and values. In particular, cultural beliefs and values that are supposed to protect the life, fatalistic beliefs, divine control beliefs tend to promote the explanation of accidents in terms ofinvisible forces and induce unsafe behaviors. Finally, the mediating role of causalexplanations is confirmed on all the beliefs. From a quasi-experiment conducted with 444 participants, the third study analyzes the variation of the causal explanations and attitude towards prevention measures, according to the situational relevance, personal relevance, and the severity of the accident. It is shown that participants tend to provide defensive causal explanations especially when the accident situation is relevant to them, they identify themselves to the victim and when the accident is serious. In addition they prefer drivers-oriented preventive measures when they explainaccidents by the drivers’ behaviors. Study 4 shows a tendency to adopt unsafe behaviors when participants underestimate traffic risk. Moreover, they tend to underestimate the traffic risk when they are fatalistic, but they fear risk when they are attached to their cultural identity. Finally, participants tend to believe that they can face traffic risk without being worried when they believe that God controls dangerous situations, or when they believe on cultural practices intended to protect life. In Study 5, we show that participants tend to adopt safer behaviors when they feartraffic risk and explain accidents by controllable causes. They are rather careless on the roadswhen they fear risk but believe that accidents are caused by invisible forces. The results are consistent with previous studies and are discussed in relation to the theoretical knowledge. Finally, suggestions encourage preventive measures based on the beliefs of the target population.