La seguridad vial laboral: la influencia de los accidentes de tráfico en el entorno laboral

Los desplazamientos relacionados con el trabajo son algo fundamental (e indispensable) para las personas, la industria y la economía del mundo actual. Sin embargo, ello da lugar a altas tasas de siniestralidad vial de los trabajadores, hecho que se ha convertido una preocupación manifiesta para la salud ocupacional y, tratándose de un asunto que involucra la seguridad vial general, también para la salud pública. En este sentido, distintos estudios coinciden en resaltar la necesidad de realizar investigaciones al respecto y establecer líneas de acción de carácter institucional basadas en la evidencia, enmarcadas en la actuación permanente y los estudios epidemiológicos, como primera estrategia para reducir los accidentes laborales viales. En este contexto, el objetivo central de este estudio fue realizar un análisis exhaustivo de la base de datos del DELT@ del Ministerio de Trabajo, Migraciones y Seguridad Social a lo largo de los últimos 12 años y de otras fuentes complementarias, para evaluar la relación entre distintas variables propias del entorno laboral, el perfil sociodemográfico de los trabajadores y los accidentes laborales de tráfico. Este estudio ha permitido establecer las características de los accidentes laborales de tráfico en España, a través de la identificación de patrones basados en el análisis de variables individuales, la temporalidad de ocurrencia del accidente, su gravedad y otras variables relacionadas con el entorno laboral. También la investigación ha dejado clara la necesidad de seguir trabajando en acciones preventivas y de mejoras en las empresas y administraciones públicas, para el fortalecimiento de la seguridad vial laboral. Previamente a este objetivo central, se han analizado diferentes aspectos fundamentales para entender la situación actual en seguridad vial laboral, como por ejemplo: la evolución de los datos de siniestralidad tanto nacionales como internacionales, los costes económicos derivados de los accidentes laborales de tráfico, el complejo marco jurídico y sus problemas, los distintos tipos de actuaciones que se realizan en las empresas, etc. Todo ello ha permitido obtener datos de interés, en un tema de gran impacto social, sanitario y económico y que lamentablemente no ha sido objeto de muchas investigaciones

The guilty, the unlucky, or the unaware? Assessing self-reported behavioral contributors and attributions on pedestrian crashes through structural equation modeling and mixed methods

Introduction: Recent literature suggests that the causation of pedestrians' crashes and the contribution of safety-related behaviors within them may substantially differ compared to other road users. This study aimed to test the effect of individual factors and safety-related road behaviors on the self-reported walk- ing crashes suffered by pedestrians and, complementarily, to analyze the causes that pedestrians attrib- uted to the crashes they suffered as pedestrians during the previous five years. Method: For this cross- sectional research performed in Spain, data from a nationwide sample of 2,499 pedestrians from the 17 regions of the country were collected. Participants had a mean age of 31 years. They responded to a questionnaire on demographics, safety-related walking behaviors, and self-reported pedestrian crashes and the causes attributed to them. Results: Utilizing Structural Equation Models (SEM), it was found that self-reported walking crashes can be predicted through unintentional risky behaviors (errors). However, violations and positive behaviors remain non-significant predictors, allowing to hypothesize that they might, rather, play a key role in the pedestrian's involvement in pre-crash scenarios (critical situations preceding crashes). Also, categorical analyses allowed to determine that the causes that pedestrians attributed to the walking crashes they had suffered were principally their own errors (44.6%), rather than their own traffic violations (8.5%). Nevertheless, this trend is inverse when they believe the responsibility of the crash weighs on the driver. That is to say, they usually attribute the crash to their traffic violations rather than errors. However, many biases could help explain these attributional findings. Practical Applications: The results of this study highlight key differences in behavioral features and crash predictors among pedestrians, with potentially relevant applications in the study and improvement of walking safety from behavioral-based approaches

Análisis del uso incorrecto y no uso de los elementos de retención infantil en el entorno del transporte escolar privado. Identificación de comportamientos erróneos

Según cifras del ERSO, los accidentes de tráfico son la primera causa de mortalidad de menores de 0 a 14 años en Europa. Dentro de este grupo existe un 42% de menores muertos en accidentes que viajaban y que no utilizaban ni el sistema de retención infantil ni el cinturón de seguridad. El estudio consistió en un cuestionario on-line (distribuido por Comunidades Autónomas proporcionalmente en función del número de habitantes) y un estudio de observación (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla y Vizcaya) que se pasó respectivamente a 605 y 411 conductores de coche y furgoneta que transportaban niños entre 0 y 12 años. Entre un 3% y un 7% de los encuestados transportan a los niños sin el sistema de retención infantil. Estos porcentajes de no uso de sistemas de retención infantil corresponden más a hombres, menores de 30 o mayores de 50 años, durante trayectos cortos, que transportan a los niños con baja frecuencia, que además no disponen de SRI y si disponen de ellos creen que con el cinturón de seguridad es suficiente

More than just 'stressful'? Testing the mediating role of fatigue on the relationship between job stress and occupational crashes of long-haul truck drivers

Introduction: Recent evidence consistently highlights the adverse work environment of long-haul professional drivers, whose task structure typically involves the performance of extensive shifts, driving under stressful working conditions. In this regard, job stress and fatigue - that are highly prevalent in this workforce - seem to play a crucial role in explaining this group's negative traffic safety outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess whether work-related fatigue is a mechanism that mediates the relationship between job stress, health indicators and occupational traffic crashes of long-haul truck drivers (LHTD). Methods: The data used in this study were collected from 521 Spanish long-haul truck drivers (97% males) from all 17 regions of Spain, with a mean age of 47 years. Results: Utilizing structural equation models (SEM), it was found that work-traffic crashes of long-haul truck drivers could be explained through work-related fatigue that exerts a full mediation between job stress (job strain), health-related factors and traffic crashes suffered during the previous two years. Discussion: Overall, the findings of this research support that a) stressful working conditions and health issues of drivers have significant effects on traffic crashes, and b) fatigue is a mechanism relating stress-related factors and work-traffic crashes of long-haul drivers. This study highlights the need of stress- and fatigue-management policies and interventions, in order to reduce the crash risk of long-haul truck drivers

Not gendered...but different from each other? A structural equation model for explaining risky road behaviors of female and male pedestrians.

As alternative transportation is getting more and more fashionable, and more people worldwide are 'shifting' to walking trips, even for their daily commuting, traffic crashes suffered by pedestrians are still a great concern for road safety and public health researchers and practitioners. In this regard, risky or 'aberrant' road behaviors have emerged, during the last few years, as a key issue to be considered for crash prevention. Nevertheless, the idea of a 'generic pedestrian' is getting re-evaluated, and analyzing key features, such as gender, seems to be crucial for understanding pedestrians' performance and safety outcomes. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of gender on pedestrians' both deliberate (traffic violations) and undeliberate (errors) risky walking behaviors, considering a set of theoretically based demographic and psychosocial variables as their potential predictors. Method: For this cross-sectional study, data from 1070 Spanish pedestrians (60 % females and 40 % males, aged between 16 and 79) from the 17 regions of Spain, responding to an electronic questionnaire, were analyzed through a multi-group structural equation modeling (MGSEM) approach. Results: Although age, handheld device-interaction, and sensation-seeking seem to have a similar effect on the errors and violations reported by both genders (similarities), factors such as risk perception, educational level and the misbehaviors observed in other road users are significant predictors only in the case of male pedestrians. On the other hand, road distractions have been shown to play a significant role in females' errors and violations, while males' road distractions seem to only affect their involuntary risky behaviors. Conclusion: The findings of this study support the influence of gender in the statistical explanation of both deliberate and undeliberate walking risky road behaviors, also depicting the differential role of certain demographic and psychosocial factors when we compare male and female pedestrians

Availability, demand, perceived constraints and disuse of ADAS technologies in Spain: findings from a national study

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), created for enhancing the driving experience and actively preventing road crashes have been progressively incorporated in vehicle designing essentially during the last decade. However, the literature has shown how some of these assisting technologies are not used by drivers in tandem with their potential. The aims of this study were first, to examine the availability and demand of ADAS technologies among Spanish drivers and, secondly, to explore the perceived constraints and discouraging reasons for avoiding the use of available ADAS in their vehicles. For this national cross-sectional study, data from 1,207 Spanish drivers were analyzed. The results of this study show that, on one hand, GPS navigation, rain sensors and automatic lightning are the most frequently used and, on the other, gestural control, E-call and post-collision emergency braking are the less demanded ADAS features in Spain. Also, low perceived value, lack of confidence and potential distractibility constitute the main constraints perceived by drivers for using these assisting technologies while driving. In this regard, and jointly with a progressive vehicle automatization, a deeper emphasis on driver training, safety and efficiency-related benefits of ADAS technologies may strengthen its acceptance and progressive inclusion in everyday driving

Are Your Eyes 'on the Road'? Findings from the 2019 National Study on Vision and Driving Safety in Spain

Background: Vision is an undisputable contributor to the explanation of many human-factor related traffic crashes happening every day. The Inland Transport Committee (ITC), the United Nations regulatory platform, included on 1st April 2020 special action on the vision of road users inside the ITC Recommendations for Enhancing Road Safety Systems. The results of this wide-scale study on drivers' vision health conducted in Spain perfectly illustrates the need of global action and its potential impact on the public health figures and the burden of potentially preventable traffic causalities. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess three key visual health issues (i.e., visual acuity, visual field campimetry and glare recovery) among Spanish drivers, in order to formulate implications and possible guidelines to enhance road safety. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the visual health of a representative sample of 3249 drivers (70% males and 30% females) with a mean age of 41 (SD = 13) years, gathered from all the 17 autonomous communities of Spain. Results: The tests performed allowed to determine that 15% of Spanish drivers have a poor photopic vision, while 38% of them present an inadequate mesopic vision. Further, 23% of drivers have deficiencies in peripheric visual field campimetry, and the average time for full-vision recovery after a 10-s glare was 27 s. Sex, age and driver type (professional vs. non-professional) differences were found for the study variables. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the idea that certain demographic-based population groups of drivers present several unaddressed deficiencies and impairments in visual health. Overall an estimated 29.5% of Spanish drivers present visual issues, that need to be attended in order to enhance the prevention of driving crashes and the road safety of all road user

Perceived benefits and constraints in vehicleautomation: Data to assess the relationshipbetween driver's features and their attitudestowards autonomous vehicles

This data article examines the association driver's features, perceptions and attitudes towards autonomous vehicles (AVs). The data was collected using a structured self-administrable and online-based questionnaire, applied to a full sample of 1205 Spanish drivers. The data contains 4 parts: the full set of bivariate correlations between study variables; descriptive statistics and graphical trends for each main study variable according to gender, age group and city/town size; and, finally, the dataset for further explorations in this regard

Assessing the Effect of Drivers' Gender on Their Intention to Use Fully Automated Vehicles

Although fully automated vehicles (SAE level 5) are expected to acquire a major relevance for transportation dynamics by the next few years, the number of studies addressing their perceived benefits from the perspective of human factors remains substantially limited. This study aimed, firstly, to assess the relationships among drivers' demographic factors, their assessment of five key features of automated vehicles (i.e., increased connectivity, reduced driving demands, fuel and trip-related efficiency, and safety improvements), and their intention to use them, and secondly, to test the predictive role of the feature' valuations over usage intention, focusing on gender as a key differentiating factor. For this cross-sectional research, the data gathered from a sample of 856 licensed drivers (49.4% females, 50.6% males; M = 40.05 years), responding to an electronic survey, was analyzed. Demographic, driving-related data, and attitudinal factors were comparatively analyzed through robust tests and a bias-corrected Multi-Group Structural Equation Modeling (MGSEM) approach. Findings from this work suggest that drivers' assessment of these AV features keep a significant set of multivariate relationships to their usage intention in the future. Additionally, and even though there are some few structural similarities, drivers' intention to use an AV can be differentially explained according to their gender. So far, this research constitutes a first approximation to the intention of using AVs from a MGSEM gender-based approach, being these results of potential interest for researchers and practitioners from different fields, including automotive design, transport planning and road safety

Measuring job stress in transportation workers: psychometric properties, convergent validity and reliability of the ERI and JCQ among professional drivers

Background The accumulated evidence has shown how professional drivers are, in psychosocial terms, among the most vulnerable workforces, and how their crashes (some of them preceded by stressful working conditions) constitute both an occupational and public health concern. However, there is a clear lack of validated tools for measuring stress and other key hazardous issues affecting transport workers, and most of the existing ones, frequently generic, do not fully consider the specific features that properly describe the work environment of professional driving. This study assessed the psychometric properties, convergent validity and consistency of two measures used for researching occupational stress among professional drivers: the Siegrist's ERI (Effort-Reward Imbalance Inventory) and Karasek's JCQ (Job Content Questionnaire). Methods We examined the data collected from 726 Spanish professional drivers. Analyses were performed using Structural Equation Models, thus obtaining basic psychometric properties of both measures and an optimized structure for the instruments, in addition to testing their convergent validity. Results The results suggest that the abbreviated versions of ERI (10 items) and JCQ (20 items) have clear dimensional structures, high factorial weights, internal consistency and an improved fit to the task's dynamics and hazards, commonly faced by of professional drivers; a short set of items with low psychometrical adjustment was excluded, and the root structure of the questionnaires was kept. Conclusions This study supports the value and reliability of ERI-10 and JCQ-20 for measuring job stress among professional drivers. Also, there is a high consistency between both measures of stress, even though they belong to different theoretical conceptions of the phenomenon. In practical settings, these instruments can be useful for occupational researchers and practitioners studying stress-related issues from the perspective of human factors