Doctors care for a trauma patient. While survival rates for trauma victims have improved, if you live to leave the hospital, you’re still at risk of dying.
MonkeyBusinessImages/Shutterstock.com
Trauma results in 41 million emergency department visits a year and hundreds of thousands of deaths. May is National Trauma Awareness month, and two experts explain why it’s time to pay attention.
Police detectives at the scene of a fatal crash in Northcote in 2017. The crash occurred after a police pursuit.
AAP/DAVID CROSLING
As a police officer, I was involved in many pursuits, investigated serious accidents and later became a researcher. Here’s what I’ve learned about how police make decisions in a pursuit.
Road crashes and deaths are a grim daily reality all over the world.
Bachtub Dmitrii/Shutterstock
Do high fuel economy requirements make the US auto fleet less safe? The Trump administration says yes and is moving to freeze these standards, but auto experts and US car makers disagree.
Whatever’s driving the popularity of SUVs like the Toyota Kluger, crash tests and accident data show people are mistaken if they think they increase safety on the road.
Toyota/AAP
Perceptions about safety might be one of the reasons more and more people are buying SUVs. The evidence from crash data, though, is troubling – particularly for other road users.
Most drivers have limited awareness of how to be safe around trucks.
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Most road fatalities involving heavy vehicles are caused by the other party, not the truck driver. We need to educate road users on how to be safer around trucks.
A woman was hit and killed by an Uber driverless vehicle while attempting to cross a road in Tempe, Arizona in March.
Uber
Companies developing autonomous vehicles are missing out on the local knowledge and values of the people who live where these cars are tested. And that lack of engagement sets up bigger problems.
A key factor is how well people and machines can avoid crashes.
Tempe Police Department via AP
Comparing crash rates between humans and self-driving cars requires more data than anyone currently collects. And some of it will be quite hard to figure out.
You know you shouldn’t smoke, or have sex without a condom if you’re not with a longtime partner. And when it comes to drinking, tea only, of course.
Dominik Martin/Unsplash
Laurent Chambaud, École des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP)
Quit smoking, quit drinking – so many good resolutions for the New Year. But can the overabundance of messages on healthy living become counter-productive?
At any given moment, roughly 1-2% of Australian drivers are estimated to be using their mobile phone while driving.
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Road safety campaigns targeting mobile phone use among drivers should emphasise how perceived social pressure is not an acceptable excuse for engaging in the behaviour.
Improved autonomous vehicle technology could reduce the tens of thousands of annual U.S. deaths due to human error behind the wheel. Are driverless cars the next big public health intervention?
Why do teenagers need more sleep?
Jens-Olaf Walter
Sleep deprivation in teenagers as a result of early morning school starts has been a topic of much debate. There’s more to this issue than just laziness.
As problems occur, rapid design adjustment will advance autonomous cars’ abilities.
Image of car with sensors via shutterstock.com
Associate Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society and The Polytechnic School; Co-Director Center for Smart Cities and Regions, Arizona State University