Characteristics of future crashes in Sweden – identifying road safety challenges in 2020 and 2030

It has been proposed by the European Commission that the number of road fatalities within the European Union should move close to zero by 2050. In response to that, Sweden has set out to revise the national road safety targets of 2020 and 2030. In order to address future safety challenges, there is a need to consider the characteristics of future crashes. The objective of this study was therefore to quantify and investigate the characteristics of severe crashes in 2020 and 2030. Injury crashes were reduced from a baseline in 2014 to a given time in the future based on the implementation of safety interventions. The material consisted of hospital admission data with AIS diagnoses. Results show that the actions planned to be taken in Sweden between now and 2020 and 2030 will continue to increase the safety level for car occupants, but are estimated to be insufficient for vulnerable road users. It was concluded that there is a need to define a safety system for vulnerable road users that takes a holistic approach to sustainability by including both injury prevention measures and measures to encourage more health-promoting and fossil-free modes of transport

MAGMUSKELTRÄNING SOM INTERVENTION HOS KVINNOR MED REKTUSDIASTAS POSTPARTUM

Evidensstyrkan bedöms vara måttligt starkt för samtliga utfallsmått vilket i kombination med låg risk för patienten ger en sammanvägd bedömning stark rekommendation för magmuskelträning som behandling vid rektusdiastas postpartu

The safety effect of increased pedestrian protection, autonomous emergency braking for pedestrians and bicyclists on passenger cars, and speed management

The overall objective of this paper was to estimate the effect of increased pedestrian protection and speed management to reduce serious injuries among pedestrians and bicyclists. More specifically, the aim was to estimate the injury mitigating effects of the following interventions: AEB with pedestrian and bicyclist detection, Euro NCAP pedestrian test score, Active Bonnet, Traffic calming at pedestrian and bicycle crossings, and additionally, the combined effect of the above-mentioned treatments. The main source of data was the Swedish traffic data acquisition system, where information of road traffic crashes between passenger cars and pedestrians or bicyclists for the period January 2003–December 2022 was obtained. Cars with optional fitment of AEB systems were identified, and the license registration number was used to access individual car equipment lists to identify whether the vehicle was equipped with AEB with pedestrian and/or cyclist detection. Information about traffic calming at pedestrian and bicycle crossings was obtained from the Swedish Transport Administration. The injury metric used was risk of permanent medical impairment (RPMI) of at least one percent and ten percent. RPMI captures the risk of long-term medical impairment based on a diagnosed injury location and Abbreviated Injury Severity score. The relative difference between the mean values of RPMI (mRPMI1% and mRPMI10%+) was calculated and tested using an independent two sample t-test which was conducted for unequal sample sizes and variance. Pedestrian mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 34%–44% in speed zones 10–50 km/h comparing the group struck by cars equipped with AEB with pedestrian detection compared to the group struck by cars without the system. However the reduction was only significant at 90% level. The pattern was similar also for mRPMI1%+. For cyclists, the mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 35% at speed zones 10–50 km/h. For crashes within +/- 20 meters from a pedestrian or bicycle crossing, the AEB system reduced 60% (p = 0.05) of pedestrians mRPMI10%+ at crossings with good safety standard compared to crossings of poor safety standard. The comparison of cars with poor performance (1–9 p) in the NCAP pedestrian test and cars with a high score (28–36 p) showed that pedestrian mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 48% (p < 0.01) across all speed limits, and by 64% including only those aged ≤ 64 years. For bicyclists, a significant reduction of cyclist mRPMI10%+ was found comparing low scoring cars to high scoring cars in 10–30 km/h speed limit (-73%, p = 0.02) and across all speed limits (-36%, p = 0.06). Including only those aged ≤ 64 years, the reduction was 49% (p < 0.01). For the active bonnet, a significant reduction of mRPMI1%+ by 24% was observed but given that the rate of helmet wearing was higher in the group struck by cars with active bonnet, this difference cannot be attributed to an effect of the active bonnet. The STA safety rating of pedestrian and bicycle crossings showed that overall pedestrian mRPMI1%+ was reduced by 15% (p = 0.06), while cyclists mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 32% (p = 0.01) comparing crossings of high safety level to crossings of poor safety level. The analysis of combined interventions showed that the total reduction of pedestrians and cyclists mRPMI10%+ together was 69% (p < 0.01), from 6.4% to 2%. This paper demonstrates that a road environment with adapted infrastructure and speed, combined with passenger car technologies that improve the safety for vulnerable road users, creates significant reductions of serious injuries among pedestrians and bicyclists

A Method to Identify Future Potential of Vehicle Safety Technology

In the design of a safe road transport system there is a need to better understand the safety challenges lying ahead. One way of doing that is to evaluate safety technology with retrospective analysis of real world crashes. However, by using retrospective data there is the risk of adapting safety innovations to scenarios irrelevant in the future. Also, challenges arise as safety interventions do not act alone but are rather interacting components in a complex road transport system and there exists no linearity between the development of Safety Performance Indicators in traffic and in the final outcome in terms of health losses. This thesis is based on two papers from studies aiming to increase the knowledge in this field by (1) developing and applying a new method to identify future potential of vehicle safety technology in Sweden, and (2) estimate the potential benefits of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) in head-on crashes between passenger cars and heavy-goods vehicles. The first study relates to the need for new prediction models, while the second relates to the need for further understanding how different crash scenarios determines the input and output in different parts in the chain of events leading to a crash, e.g. the integrated safety chain, and thereby affects the performance of safety systems.The key point in study 1 was to project the integrated safety chain in crashes of today into the crashes for a given time in the future. Assumptions on the implementation of safety technologies were made as applied to fatal passenger-car crashes of today. It was estimated which crashes would be prevented and the residual were analyzed to identify the characteristics of future crashes. The study predicts that the number of car occupants killed would be reduced by 53% from 2010 to 2020. Through this new method, valuable information regarding the characteristic of the future crashes could also be found. In study 2 calculations of the available time for AEB depending on crash scenario were done in order to estimate the potential benefits of AEB. The findings indicates that there is a great safety potential in applying AEB in head-on scenarios even late in the integrated safety chain, when the collision is no longer avoidable by steering. It also confirmed that the available time for AEB, and thereby the effect of AEB in delta-v reduction, is highly dependent on the scenarios prior to the point of braking. Application of the combined results from paper 1 and paper 2 can be exemplified in that paper 1 predicts a reduction of loss-of-control scenarios and paper 2 shows that this specific scenario provides the shortest time available for autonomous emergency braking. Thus, there are indications that AEB could have a greater safety potential in the future as loss-of-control scenarios are decreasing over time. Even though more knowledge is required, these interactions and possible systems effects highlights the potential in having an holistic approach when evaluating vehicle safety technologies and their future benefits

Identifying the Potential of Combined Road Safety Interventions - A Method to Evaluate Future Effects of Integrated Road and Vehicle Safety Technologies

Health loss in the road transport system is one of the leading global public health problems with approximately 1.3 million people killed annually. In order to have a systematical approach to improved road safety, it has become common practice to form road safety management policies that include target setting and evaluation. The overall aim of this thesis was to facilitate road safety management by developing a new method to guide stakeholders with decisions on the most effective interventions to improve road safety, or in the design of safety innovations.In this thesis, a new method to identify the potential of combined road safety interventions was developed and validated. Crashes were studied from a system’s approach perspective, and the integrated safety chain was used to derive a residual of crashes from a baseline based on assumptions regarding the progress of Safety Performance Indicators over the period studied. The characteristics of the residual fatal crashes in 2020 were then described and analyzed to identify future safety gaps. A validation of the method was conducted by taking into account actual interventions implemented between 2000 and 2010 and by reducing the fatalities in 2000 to a residual of crashes in 2010 and then comparing this to the true outcome of 2010. It was concluded that the method was found to give an overall valid explanation for the reduction of fatalities from 2000 to 2010.The main advantage of this method compared to previous methods is the ability to describe the characteristics of future crashes, and what measures would be effective in reducing them. Single vehicle and head-on crashes were estimated to be reduced most significantly from 2000 to 2010, largely as a result of the installation of median barriers and the fitment of Electronic Stability Control. In two studies, effect estimates of pedestrian friendly car fronts and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) fitted on Heavy Goods Vehicles in head-on crashes were derived and these estimates can be applied in the method in future. It was also concluded that positive system effects can emerge between road and vehicle safety technologies. Speed management can enhance the performance of pedestrian protection which will be important for increasing safety for vulnerable road users. In addition, it was found that the overall effectiveness of AEB would increase if the proportion of loss-of-control scenarios is minimalized and that AEB could be very helpful for increasing the compatibility between passenger cars and Heavy Goods Vehicles.This thesis presents a new approach to evaluating future effects of integrated road and vehicle safety technologies. It can be summarized as; 1 – Highlight future potentials and safety gaps, 2 – Define and refine technological innovations and 3 – Guiding integrated interventions. It is recommended that the evolution of the transport system is taken into account when estimating the benefits of future technologies. Road and vehicle safety interventions should be designed in collaboration with stakeholders and combined in the best possible way in order to create positive system effects. There is also a need for accurate effect estimates as they form essential tools in the road safety management process

The "New" History? : Notes on the Historiography of Photography

The French anthology Nouvelle Histoire de la Photographie, published in 1994 under the editorship of Michel Frizot and translated into English in 1998, has been recognized as presenting a new way of writing the history of photography. Its precursors were surveys of the development of photography as an art, imbued by a modernist aesthetics of media specificity. Conversely, Nouvelle Histoire de la Photographie is generally acknowledged as having illuminated more aspects of the multifaceted medium of photography, used for many ends other than art. While this article recognizes the book's departure from the model once provided by the histories of art, it claims that it has not similarly departed from the modernist evolutionary tendencies of its earlier precursors. In renouncing the influences from the history of art, it has in fact made these even stronger, turning the book into a celebration of the medium in itself.</p

“Let the Camera Be a Weapon” : On Word and Image in Environmental Communication by Swedish Nature Photographers

This article examines the interplay of word and image in environmental communication through the lens of Swedish nature photography, focusing on the exhibition Vinnare och förlorare i svensk natur (Winners and Losers in Swedish Nature) by the Swedish Association for Nature Photographers. The study contrasts this contemporary exhibition with Arne Schmitz’s 1977 photographic essay Landskap i förvandling (Landscapes in Transformation), highlighting divergent strategies in combining visual and textual elements to convey environmental messages. Drawing on W. J. T. Mitchell’s theories of image-text relations, the article critiques the exhibition’s reliance on aesthetically captivating close-ups of individual animals, which, while emotionally engaging, risk undermining the intended message about biodiversity and ecological interdependence. The accompanying texts, though informative, are often relegated to a secondary role, creating a dissonance between visual and verbal narratives. In contrast, Schmitz’s work exemplifies a more integrated and pedagogically effective approach, where images and texts mutually reinforce a critical environmental perspective. The article argues for a reconsideration of the conventional division of labor between image and word in environmental media, advocating for more cohesive strategies that align aesthetic appeal with ecological urgency