Introdução: Os acidentes de trânsito e os traumas causados por eles constituem um grave problema social e de saúde pública em todo o mundo, atingem principalmente os adultos em faixa etária produtiva de vida. Além da morte, esses eventos podem causar nos acidentados comprometimentos na mobilidade, na vida ocupacional, nas relações sociais, na saúde física e mental e outras implicações para as vítimas e seus familiares. Objetivo: compreender e descrever a experiência vivenciada pelo acidentado ou vítima de trânsito com sequela física permanente e seus familiares. Método: os referenciais de Interacionismo Simbólico e História Oral, articulados a abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, fundamentaram teórica e metodologicamente este estudo. Foram realizadas entrevistas com dezoito vítimas de acidente de trânsito, sendo nove vítimas de acidente de trânsito com sequela permanente e um familiar de cada vítima. Resultados: o resgate das memórias individuais permitiu a elaboração das narrativas, que por meio de um processo analítico possibilitaram a construção da memória coletiva, organizada em quatro temas: Sofrimento e ruptura da maneira de viver, O acidente de trânsito como renascimento, Quotidiano familiar desestruturado e Esperança: criando um ambiente para dar continuidade a vida. Os resultados do estudo revelaram que as vítimas primárias de acidente de trânsito que sobrevivem e adquirem uma deficiência física e as vítimas secundárias, seus familiares, vivenciam sofrimento físico e emocional com significativo impacto em suas vidas. A sequela obriga a uma ruptura com o modo de vida anterior ao acidente e as modificações exigidas por essa ruptura são experienciadas com dor, tristeza, pesar, desespero e um misto de sentimentos negativos que fazem parte de todo sofrimento vivenciado por eles. Conclusões: partindo-se da concepção de que os acidentes de trânsito são em maior ou menor grau perfeitamente passíveis de prevenção tem-se a reflexão que todo o sofrimento e gastos envolvidos podem ser evitados, fato de grande magnitude ao analisar-se que toda a população, sem exceções, está sujeita a sofrer um acidente de trânsito. Os resultados permitem a reflexão sobre a importância da família no processo saúde e doença das vítimas, que não contam com ajuda do Estado para lidar com a situação. Percebe-se assim, que há necessidade evidente em fornecer assistência às vítimas de acidente com sequelas de maneira integral, dando especial atenção ao período pós-sequela e à inclusão da assistência à família, também uma vítima do acidente, nesse caso, uma vítima secundária. / Introduction: Traffic accidents and related traumas are a serious social and public health problem worldwide, ultimately affecting working-age adults. Besides death, such events may cause mobility impairment and harm in their occupational life, social relations, physical and mental health, and other implications for the victims and family members. Objective: to understand and describe the experience lived by victims of traffic accidents with permanent physical sequelae and their family members. Method: Symbolic Interactionism and Oral History, articulated with a qualitative research approach, were the theoretical and methodological backgrounds in this study. Interviews were carried out with eighteen victims of traffic accidents, comprising nine victims of traffic accidents with permanent sequelae, and one family member of each victim. Results: the recollection of individual memories enabled the elaboration of narratives, which furthered the construction of the collective memory by means of an analytical process, organized in four themes: Suffering and disruption in the way of life, Traffic accident as rebirth, Disrupted family daily life and Hope: creating an environment to carry on their lives. The study results uncovered that primary victims of traffic accidents who survive and get physically disabled, and the secondary victims, their family members, experience physical and emotional suffering with significant impact in their lives. Sequelae bring about a disruption in the way of life they used to have before the accident, and changes arising from that disruption are experienced with pain, sadness, grief, despair, and a mix of negative feelings which entail the suffering lived by them. Conclusions: Under the perspective that all traffic accidents are perfectly preventable in a higher or lower degree, we get to the reflection that all suffering and expenses involved can be prevented, which is highly significant if we analyze that all the population, without any exceptions, may have a traffic accident. The results enable the reflection on the importance of the family in victims health and disease process, who do not have any State assistance in order to cope with the event. Thus, it is perceived that there is evident need to provide impaired accident victims with special attention during the post-sequelae period on a full scale, extending it to their family members, also accident victims, in this case, secondary victims.

O trauma é uma doença que representa um problema de saúde pública de grande magnitude e transcendência no Brasil, que tem causado forte impacto na morbidade e mortalidade da população, com profundas repercussões nas estruturas sociais, econômicas e políticas de nossa sociedade. Diante da necessidade de métodos de diagnóstico e tratamento invasivos e devido à lesão traumática criar um estado de relativa imunossupressão, a evolução clínica do politraumatizado apresenta muitas variáveis que se destacam como fatores de risco para infecções hospitalares, dentre elas a pneumonia hospitalar. Esta investigação tem por objetivo estimar a incidência de pneumonia hospitalar em pacientes com trauma por acidente de transporte, identificar aqueles que desenvolveram a infecção segundo sexo, idade, doenças de base, segmento(s) afetado(s), gravidade da lesão, tempo de permanência da internação hospitalar, condições de alta, intubação endotraqueal e/ou traqueostomia, uso de ventilação mecânica, realização de toracotomia e drenagem torácica, uso de antimicrobianos profiláticos e realização de procedimentos cirúrgicos, e identificar fatores de risco para seu aparecimento. Foi realizado um estudo analítico, transversal, no qual a população estudada foi de pacientes com trauma por acidente de transporte, atendidos na Unidade de Emergência do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto - Universidade de São Paulo. O processamento dos dados foi realizado utilizando-se programas STATA 2.0 e Epi-Info versão 2002 e para o modelo de regressão logística múltiplo o programa usado foi o SAS versão 8. Do total de 309 registros levantados, 44 foram excluídos do levantamento, resultando em 265 prontuários considerados como a amostra do estudo. Os critérios de inclusão usados foram referentes a todas as vítimas de acidente de transporte, com idade maior ou igual a 12 anos, que permaneceram internados por período mínimo de 48 horas, durante os meses de janeiro a dezembro de 2002. A média de idade foi de 33,4 anos com mediana de 30 (amplitude de variação entre 12 a 80 anos), sendo que 224 (84,5%) eram do sexo masculino e 41 (15,5%) do sexo feminino. A média para o Injury Severity Score (ISS) foi de 13,2 com mediana de 9 (amplitude de variação entre 1 a 75). O tempo médio de internação hospitalar foi de 12,3 dias com mediana de 7 dias (amplitude de variação entre 2 a 80 dias). Dos 265 pacientes da amostra, 59 internaram no Centro de Terapia Intensiva (22,2%) mostrando média de permanência de 14 dias com mediana de 10 (amplitude de variação entre 1 a 75 dias). A taxa de incidência encontrada para a pneumonia hospitalar foi de 15,1%, onde o tempo médio de comprovação do diagnóstico foi de 6 dias. O modelo de regressão logística múltiplo encontrou que a variável sexo apresenta um risco adicional de 1,75 para a pneumonia nas mulheres (Odds Ratio ajustado de 16,0; p = 0,02). Constatou-se também que o ISS, a intubação traqueal e a drenagem torácica apresentaram percentuais maiores no sexo feminino em relação ao masculino. Na amostra total foi encontrado que o trauma de cabeça apresenta um risco adicional de 16,36 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 6,79; p = 0,04). Para a gravidade do nível da lesão o teste mostrou significância para os valores do ISS entre 19 a 22, dando um risco adicional de 82,22 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 59,61; p = 0,04). Para os dias de internação hospitalar ocorreu uma forte significância no reagrupamento, cujo intervalo de permanência hospitalar variou de 16 a 80 dias, apresentando um risco adicional de 48,66 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 135,61; p < 0,01). O procedimento de intubação traqueal mostrou risco adicional de 63,00 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 45,68; p < 0,01) e para a drenagem torácica encontramos um risco adicional de 9,33 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 13,64; p = 0,04). Como conclusão, este estudo indica que a incidência de pneumonia hospitalar se deve principalmente ao fato desta população ter sido submetida a procedimentos invasivos de tratamento, fato demonstrado também na literatura. Entretanto, na população estudada vimos que o nível de gravidade da lesão e o tempo de permanência hospitalar mostram-se menores em relação a outros estudos. Estes resultados fornecem uma linha de base para discussões sobre mudanças na abordagem destes doentes. / Trauma is a disease that represents a public health problem of great magnitude and transcendence in Brazil, with a strong impact on the morbidity and mortality of the population and profound repercussions on the social, economic and political structures of our society. In view of the necessity of invasive diagnostic and treatment methods and considering that traumatic injury creates a state of relative immunosuppression, the clinical course of polytraumatized patients presents many variables that are particularly important as risk factors for hospital infections, among them hospital pneumonia. The objective of the present investigation was to estimate the incidence of hospital pneumonia among patients with traumas due to traffic accidents, to identify those that developed this infection according to sex, age, previous history, type of trauma, severity of the injury, duration of hospitalization, discharge conditions, endotracheal intubation and/or tracheostomy, use of mechanical ventilation, thoracotomy and chest drainage, use of prophylactic antibiotic, and execution of surgical procedures, and to identify risk factors for to appearing. An analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted on a population of patients with trauma due to traffic accidents attended at the Emergency Unity of the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo. Data were processed with the STATA 2.0 and Epi-Info version 2002 software and the multiple logistic regression model was applied using the SAS version 8 software. Of the 309 records surveyed, 44 were excluded, resulting in 265 medical records considered to represent the study sample. The inclusion criterion was: all victims of traffic accidents aged 12 years or older who were admitted for at least 48 hours during the months of January to December 2002. Mean age was 33.4 years and the median was 30 years (range: 12 to 80 years); 224 (84.5%) were males and 41 (15.5%) were females. Mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 13.2 and the median 9 (range: 0 to 99). Mean time of hospitalization was 12.3 days, with a median of 7 days (range: 2 to 8 days). Of the 265 patients in the sample, 59 were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (22.2%), with a mean permanence of 14 days, median of 10 days (range: 1 to 75 days). The rate of incidence of hospital pneumonia detected was 15.1%, with a mean time of diagnostic confirmation of 6 days. The multiple logistic regression model revealed that the sex variable presented an additional risk of 1.75 for pneumonia among women (adjusted Odds Ratio of 16.0; p = 0.02). We also observed higher percentages of ISS, tracheal intubation and chest drainage among women compared to men. For the sample as a whole, head trauma was found to present an additional risk of 16.36 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 6.79; p = 0.04). For the severity of injury level the test showed significance for ISS values between 19 and 22, with an additional risk of 82.22 (adjusted Odds Ratio 59.61; p = 0.04). For the days of hospitalization there was strong significance in regrouping, with hospital permanence ranging from 16 to 80 days, with an additional risk of 48.66 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 135.61; p < 0.01). The procedure of tracheal intubation showed an additional risk of 63.00 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 45.68; p < 0.01) and chest drainage showed an additional risk of 9.33 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 13.64; p = 0.04). We conclude that the present study indicate that the incidence of hospital pneumonia was mainly due to the fact that this population was submitted to invasive treatment procedures, a fact also demonstrated in the literature. However, we observed that in the study population the level of severity of the injury and the time of hospitalization were lower than those reported in other studies. These findings provide a baseline for a discussion of changes in the approach to these patients.

As curvas horizontais das rodovias notoriamente colecionam acidentes de trânsito, nos quais geralmente os automóveis derrapam e escapam pela tangente, enquanto que os veículos pesados costumam tombar lateralmente. Os critérios consagrados de projeto geométrico das curvas, consideradas planas, ignoram a propensão dos veículos pesados ao tombamento lateral, confiando apenas nas forças de atrito lateral e na superelevação transversal da via para a manutenção do veículo em trajetória segura. O presente trabalho pretende desenvolver modelo de projeto que forneça margens de segurança tanto contra o escorregamento e o tombamento lateral de veículos pesados (semi-reboques) em curvas horizontais com greide descendente. O modelo proposto no presente estudo é sensível a fatores de segurança intrínsecos e extrínsecos aos veículos, incluindo características geométricas longitudinais e transversais da pista, e a variação da trajetória do veículo dentro da curva. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que os critérios de projeto atuais não garantem a segurança de semi-reboques em curvas descendentes de raio mínimo, principalmente nas curvas de menor velocidade. O critério desenvolvido permite o estabelecimento de margens de segurança para a regulamentação de velocidade em curvas horizontais descendentes já existentes, bem como possibilita a determinação da velocidade de projeto segura para curvas descendentes em novas vias. / The grade effect on highway horizontal curves is notorious for traffic accidents because automobiles tend to skid and leave the road whereas commercial loaded vehicles tend to roll over. The standard criteria for the geometric design of these curves, which are considered flat, ignore the heavy vehicles propensity for rollover by relying solely on the forces of lateral friction and on the road superelevation in order to keep the vehicle in a safe trajectory. The current study has been set out in order to develop a model that will yield margins of safety to prevent skidding and rollover of heavy vehicles (semi-trailers) on horizontal descending highway curves. The model proposed in the present study is sensitive to safety variables both intrinsic and extrinsic to the vehicles, including longitudinal and transversal characteristics of the road, and vehicles trajectory variations at horizontal curves. The results of the study show that the currently adopted safety guidelines do not guarantee the safety of such articulated vehicles on grade curves with minimum radii, mostly at lower speeds curves. As a result, the proposed criteria allows the establishment of margins of safety that can be applied to regulatory speed signs on existing horizontal descending curves, and for the setting of safe design speeds for descending curves on new highways.

O trauma é uma doença que representa um problema de saúde pública de grande magnitude e transcendência no Brasil, que tem causado forte impacto na morbidade e mortalidade da população, com profundas repercussões nas estruturas sociais, econômicas e políticas de nossa sociedade. Diante da necessidade de métodos de diagnóstico e tratamento invasivos e devido à lesão traumática criar um estado de relativa imunossupressão, a evolução clínica do politraumatizado apresenta muitas variáveis que se destacam como fatores de risco para infecções hospitalares, dentre elas a pneumonia hospitalar. Esta investigação tem por objetivo estimar a incidência de pneumonia hospitalar em pacientes com trauma por acidente de transporte, identificar aqueles que desenvolveram a infecção segundo sexo, idade, doenças de base, segmento(s) afetado(s), gravidade da lesão, tempo de permanência da internação hospitalar, condições de alta, intubação endotraqueal e/ou traqueostomia, uso de ventilação mecânica, realização de toracotomia e drenagem torácica, uso de antimicrobianos profiláticos e realização de procedimentos cirúrgicos, e identificar fatores de risco para seu aparecimento. Foi realizado um estudo analítico, transversal, no qual a população estudada foi de pacientes com trauma por acidente de transporte, atendidos na Unidade de Emergência do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto - Universidade de São Paulo. O processamento dos dados foi realizado utilizando-se programas STATA 2.0 e Epi-Info versão 2002 e para o modelo de regressão logística múltiplo o programa usado foi o SAS versão 8. Do total de 309 registros levantados, 44 foram excluídos do levantamento, resultando em 265 prontuários considerados como a amostra do estudo. Os critérios de inclusão usados foram referentes a todas as vítimas de acidente de transporte, com idade maior ou igual a 12 anos, que permaneceram internados por período mínimo de 48 horas, durante os meses de janeiro a dezembro de 2002. A média de idade foi de 33,4 anos com mediana de 30 (amplitude de variação entre 12 a 80 anos), sendo que 224 (84,5%) eram do sexo masculino e 41 (15,5%) do sexo feminino. A média para o Injury Severity Score (ISS) foi de 13,2 com mediana de 9 (amplitude de variação entre 1 a 75). O tempo médio de internação hospitalar foi de 12,3 dias com mediana de 7 dias (amplitude de variação entre 2 a 80 dias). Dos 265 pacientes da amostra, 59 internaram no Centro de Terapia Intensiva (22,2%) mostrando média de permanência de 14 dias com mediana de 10 (amplitude de variação entre 1 a 75 dias). A taxa de incidência encontrada para a pneumonia hospitalar foi de 15,1%, onde o tempo médio de comprovação do diagnóstico foi de 6 dias. O modelo de regressão logística múltiplo encontrou que a variável sexo apresenta um risco adicional de 1,75 para a pneumonia nas mulheres (Odds Ratio ajustado de 16,0; p = 0,02). Constatou-se também que o ISS, a intubação traqueal e a drenagem torácica apresentaram percentuais maiores no sexo feminino em relação ao masculino. Na amostra total foi encontrado que o trauma de cabeça apresenta um risco adicional de 16,36 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 6,79; p = 0,04). Para a gravidade do nível da lesão o teste mostrou significância para os valores do ISS entre 19 a 22, dando um risco adicional de 82,22 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 59,61; p = 0,04). Para os dias de internação hospitalar ocorreu uma forte significância no reagrupamento, cujo intervalo de permanência hospitalar variou de 16 a 80 dias, apresentando um risco adicional de 48,66 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 135,61; p < 0,01). O procedimento de intubação traqueal mostrou risco adicional de 63,00 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 45,68; p < 0,01) e para a drenagem torácica encontramos um risco adicional de 9,33 (Odds Ratio ajustado de 13,64; p = 0,04). Como conclusão, este estudo indica que a incidência de pneumonia hospitalar se deve principalmente ao fato desta população ter sido submetida a procedimentos invasivos de tratamento, fato demonstrado também na literatura. Entretanto, na população estudada vimos que o nível de gravidade da lesão e o tempo de permanência hospitalar mostram-se menores em relação a outros estudos. Estes resultados fornecem uma linha de base para discussões sobre mudanças na abordagem destes doentes. / Trauma is a disease that represents a public health problem of great magnitude and transcendence in Brazil, with a strong impact on the morbidity and mortality of the population and profound repercussions on the social, economic and political structures of our society. In view of the necessity of invasive diagnostic and treatment methods and considering that traumatic injury creates a state of relative immunosuppression, the clinical course of polytraumatized patients presents many variables that are particularly important as risk factors for hospital infections, among them hospital pneumonia. The objective of the present investigation was to estimate the incidence of hospital pneumonia among patients with traumas due to traffic accidents, to identify those that developed this infection according to sex, age, previous history, type of trauma, severity of the injury, duration of hospitalization, discharge conditions, endotracheal intubation and/or tracheostomy, use of mechanical ventilation, thoracotomy and chest drainage, use of prophylactic antibiotic, and execution of surgical procedures, and to identify risk factors for to appearing. An analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted on a population of patients with trauma due to traffic accidents attended at the Emergency Unity of the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo. Data were processed with the STATA 2.0 and Epi-Info version 2002 software and the multiple logistic regression model was applied using the SAS version 8 software. Of the 309 records surveyed, 44 were excluded, resulting in 265 medical records considered to represent the study sample. The inclusion criterion was: all victims of traffic accidents aged 12 years or older who were admitted for at least 48 hours during the months of January to December 2002. Mean age was 33.4 years and the median was 30 years (range: 12 to 80 years); 224 (84.5%) were males and 41 (15.5%) were females. Mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 13.2 and the median 9 (range: 0 to 99). Mean time of hospitalization was 12.3 days, with a median of 7 days (range: 2 to 8 days). Of the 265 patients in the sample, 59 were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (22.2%), with a mean permanence of 14 days, median of 10 days (range: 1 to 75 days). The rate of incidence of hospital pneumonia detected was 15.1%, with a mean time of diagnostic confirmation of 6 days. The multiple logistic regression model revealed that the sex variable presented an additional risk of 1.75 for pneumonia among women (adjusted Odds Ratio of 16.0; p = 0.02). We also observed higher percentages of ISS, tracheal intubation and chest drainage among women compared to men. For the sample as a whole, head trauma was found to present an additional risk of 16.36 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 6.79; p = 0.04). For the severity of injury level the test showed significance for ISS values between 19 and 22, with an additional risk of 82.22 (adjusted Odds Ratio 59.61; p = 0.04). For the days of hospitalization there was strong significance in regrouping, with hospital permanence ranging from 16 to 80 days, with an additional risk of 48.66 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 135.61; p < 0.01). The procedure of tracheal intubation showed an additional risk of 63.00 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 45.68; p < 0.01) and chest drainage showed an additional risk of 9.33 (adjusted Odds Ratio of 13.64; p = 0.04). We conclude that the present study indicate that the incidence of hospital pneumonia was mainly due to the fact that this population was submitted to invasive treatment procedures, a fact also demonstrated in the literature. However, we observed that in the study population the level of severity of the injury and the time of hospitalization were lower than those reported in other studies. These findings provide a baseline for a discussion of changes in the approach to these patients.

Conclusion. It is probably now appropriate to close a chapter in the history of public communication campaigning. Weaknesses which have usually been seen as instrumental can now be seen for what they are: conceptual failures grounded in compromised ontologies and false epistemologies. As I showed in the last chapter, even when viewed within their own narrow empiricist frame, public communication campaigns fail to satisfy a test of empirical efficacy. But empirical failure reveals a deeper moral failure: the failure of government to properly engage in a conversation with the citizens to whom they are ultimately responsible. Whether public communication campaigns are a symptom or a cause of this failure lies beyond the scope of this thesis. But there can be little doubt that the practice of these campaigns has encouraged the persistence of an inappropriate relation between state and citizens. The originators and managers of mass media public communication campaigns conceive of and execute their creations as persuasive devices aimed at the targets who have been selected to receive their messages. But we do not see ourselves as targets (and there are profound ethical reasons why we should not be treated as such), neither do we engage with the mass media as message receivers. On the contrary, as social beings, we become actively and creatively involved with the communicative events which we attend to and participate in; the mass media, like all other communication opportunities, provide the means for generating new meanings, new ways of understanding, new social realities. But people are constrained from participating fully in public discussion about social issues; the government's construal of individuals as targets and of communication as transmitted messages does not provide the discursive space for mutual interaction. Governments should aim to encourage the active engagement of citizens in public discussion by conceiving of and executing public communication as part of a continuing conversation, not as packaged commodities to be marketed and consumed, or as messages to be received. It is time to encourage alternative practices-practices which open up the possibility of productive conversations which will help transform the relationship between citizens and state. However, as I have argued in this thesis, changed practices must be accompanied by profound changes in thinking, otherwise we continue to reinvent the past. Communication practice is informed by the ontology of communication which is itself embedded within other ontologies and epistemologies. The dominant paradigm of communication is at present in a state of crisis, caught between two views of communication power. On the one hand it displays an obsession with instrumental effectiveness on which it cannot deliver. On the other hand-in an attempt to discard the accumulated baggage of dualist philosophy and mechanistic models of effective communication-it indulges in a humourless critique of language which, as Robert Hughes astutely observes, is little more than an enclave of abstract complaint (Hughes 1993:72). This thesis has been an attempt to open up a space for a new ontology, within which we might create new possibilities.

<p>As one of the highest fatalities causes, traffic accidents and collisions always requires a large amounteffort to be reduced or prevented from occur. Traffic safety management routines therefore always needefficient and effective implementation due to the variations of traffic, especially from trafficengineering point of view apart from driver education.Traffic Accident Prediction Model, considered as one of the handy tool of traffic safety management,has become of well followed with interested. Although it is believed that traffic accidents are mostlycaused by human factors, these accident prediction models would help from traffic engineering point ofview to enlarge the traffic safety level of road segments. This thesis is aiming for providing a guidelineof the accident prediction model implementation in traffic safety management, regarding to trafficengineering field. Discussion about how this prediction models should merge into the existing routinesand how well these models would perform would be given. As well, cost benefit analysis of theimplementation would be at the end of this thesis. Meanwhile, a practical field study would bepresented in order to show the procedures of the implementation of traffic accident prediction model.The field study is about this commercial model set SafeNET, from TRL Limited UK, implemented inRoad Safety Audit procedures combined with microscopic simulation tool. Detailed processing andinput and output data will be given accompany with the countermeasures for accident frequencyreduction finalization.</p>

As one of the highest fatalities causes, traffic accidents and collisions always requires a large amounteffort to be reduced or prevented from occur. Traffic safety management routines therefore always needefficient and effective implementation due to the variations of traffic, especially from trafficengineering point of view apart from driver education.Traffic Accident Prediction Model, considered as one of the handy tool of traffic safety management,has become of well followed with interested. Although it is believed that traffic accidents are mostlycaused by human factors, these accident prediction models would help from traffic engineering point ofview to enlarge the traffic safety level of road segments. This thesis is aiming for providing a guidelineof the accident prediction model implementation in traffic safety management, regarding to trafficengineering field. Discussion about how this prediction models should merge into the existing routinesand how well these models would perform would be given. As well, cost benefit analysis of theimplementation would be at the end of this thesis. Meanwhile, a practical field study would bepresented in order to show the procedures of the implementation of traffic accident prediction model.The field study is about this commercial model set SafeNET, from TRL Limited UK, implemented inRoad Safety Audit procedures combined with microscopic simulation tool. Detailed processing andinput and output data will be given accompany with the countermeasures for accident frequencyreduction finalization.

D. Tech. Policing / The first legislation on accident reporting in South Africa was promulgated in 1913 in an ordinance of Transvaal, one of the four provinces of South Africa at the time. Since then several amendments have been made to legislation on accident reporting, but accident reporting has continued to be time consuming and unnecessarily complicated. It seems that technology is not yet utilised to its full potential. Therefore this study investigates ways in which an online application (app) for accident reporting could be designed and implemented. The development and implementation of a simpler and modern app for online accident reporting could successfully address the problem of unavailable statistics for minor damage-only accidents. By amending the National Road Traffic Act, 1996 (Act 93 of 1996) to accommodate more cost-effective online accident reporting through eAccident, the time spent on compiling the current accident reports could be minimised and costly human resources could be utilised more effectively in core police functions such as law enforcement.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Traffic Safety Management)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2008. / This research explored ways in which the process of road traffic accident reporting in the Johannesburg metropole could be enhanced. The specific objectives were to systematically examine the process of road traffic accident reporting and to focus on an analysis of (1) the time it takes the relevant authorities to complete the various activities involved in reporting road traffic accidents; (2) the quality of completed road traffic accident reports; and (3) the general experiences of drivers involved in road traffic accidents regarding the system of road traffic accident reporting and information retrieval in the Johannesburg metropole; to draft guidelines for strengthening the process of road traffic accident reporting in the research area, based on the mentioned analysis; and to provide pointers for future research. The study adopted a systems perspective on road traffic accident reporting and took cognisance of the wider road traffic safety management and transportation context in South Africa. The findings underlined that (1) the time taken to report road traffic accidents in the Johannesburg metropole tended to be unacceptably long; and that (2) accident reports tended to be inaccurate and/or incomplete. Based on the findings and the conceptual premises of the study, the researcher developed an accident-reporting management model.

Introduction Road traffic collisions in developing countries contribute towards the greatest burden of disabilities and fatalities globally. Concern has arisen about the high proportion of pedestrians involved in collisions in South Africa. Aim This study describes the epidemiology of motor vehicle collisions involving pedestrians in eThekwini Municipality from 2001 to 2006, aiming to identify opportunities for prevention and informing policy. Methods An analytic cross-sectional study design was used. Data was obtained from the eThekwini Transport Authority database (police accident reports), and the Nationallnjury Mortality Surveillance System (mortuary reports). Exposure variables included pedestrian and drivers' demographics and collision environment. Death and injury were the outcome variables measured. Population data was obtained from Statistics South Africa. Results Pedestrians' injuries decreased from 7 445 to 6 288 (incidence risk: 241 to 193 per 100 000) from 200 I to 2006. Annual case fatality rose from 4.9% (366 deaths in 200 I) to 6.8% (430 deaths in 2006). Child pedestrians aged 5 to 9 years had a 77% increased risk of injury relative to other children. The fatality risk ratio of male to female pedestrians was 3.8 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.7 to 9.3). Male drivers aged 30 to 34 years had a 68% increased collision risk relative to all other male drivers and eight times (Incidence risk ratio: 8.0; 95% Confidence Interval: 6.2 to 10.3) the risk of female drivers. Only 3.4% of collisions occurred on freeways but accounted for 19.6% of pedestrian fatalities. Few (1.5%) collisions involving pedestrians occurred at night in unlit conditions but constituted more than four times the number of fatalities as number of collisions in these conditions. / Thesis (MMed.)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.