Highway Safety Research: A Limited (and Biased) History

Forrest M. Council October 6, 2006

I Will Cover
Brief history of the highway safety research field How HSRC not only fits in, but has helped mold this history Personal thoughts on what the future will hold (Not-so) Hidden Agenda Why You Should Want to Collaborate with Us!

Why Highway Safety Research Is Difficult?

Every road user is an expert.
Personal experience on the problem They have solutions, and WILL share them So what do we need these expensive, ivorytower, university researchers for? You often must tell the public and well-meaning administrators (some who fund you) that they are wrong about their favorite program.

Why Highway Safety Research Is Difficult? (cont)

Road crashes, deaths and injuries have multiple causes seldom just the driver or the vehicle or the road.
Thus, need a multidisciplinary research team. Each member of the team must develop some understanding of the other disciplines.
Engineer researcher must understand human factors, Psychologist much understand how the roadway design constraints affect driver behaviors All have to understand how users can and cannot be educated/trained

Why is Highway Safety Research Fun?

For the same reasons its difficult
The challenge of finding out what really works, and fun of working with other disciplines to do this

This is a very important area a significant public health problem

Over 40,000 annual deaths and over 5 million injuries. Leading cause of unintentional injury death Leading Cause of Death for Ages 6-33 Leading Cause of Quadriplegia, Paraplegia, Serious Brain Injury

Why is Highway Safety Research Fun? (cont)

You can see your research translated into practice (often quickly), and can then evaluate it and see its effect.
Our work affects national safety policy in diverse areas (e.g., pedestrian and bicycle safety, boating safety, alcohol use and driving, roadway design, occupant protection)

If you work at HSRC, its fun because you work with and learn from a multidisciplinary team.

HSRCs Multidisciplinary Staff

Biology Business Administration Civil/Transportation Engineering Communications Community Health Education Computer Science Education Electrical Engineering Epidemiology Geography History Library Science Mathematics Philosophy Psychology Public Health Regional Planning Sociology Visual Communication

Why is Highway Safety Research Fun? (cont)

At HSRC, we not only emphasize getting research findings (ours and others) into practice, but we actually get to help put them to into the real world.
You get to do the hands-on, face-to-face work with the users of your product.

Brief History of Highway Safety (and HSRC) Research

Pre-US DOT years (up to 1967)
Highway safety research as early as 1940s Little federal funding, so pockets at universities and auto companies Major funding was in crashworthiness (how to make the vehicle safer)
Conducted at Cornell Aeronautical Labs, Cornell University. Based on (multidisciplinary) crash reconstruction Dr. B.J. Campbell was there during the 1960s before coming to HSRC.

US DOT formed in 1967

Funding for both program implementation and research and evaluation.

 NHTSA established in 1970

First Administrator -- Dr. William Haddon, public health physician (and researcher) Emphasis on vehicle crashworthiness Some research for driver programs (e.g., DUI prevention, driver education).

FHWA and AASHTO (NCHRP) conducting major roadway research, but safety research only a relatively small part

1966 -- HSRC was born. Three very wise parents

Governor Dan K. Moore
Had HSRC written into law with the mission of improving safety and evaluating existing programs Mandated that we would be in UNC system, rather than another state agency (which we might be evaluating) Hired Dr. Campbell as first Director Made sure HSRC was located on the UNC campus, which ultimately led to us being much more multidisciplinary than if at NCSU.

Dr. Albert Coates, Director of the UNC Institute of Government.

Dr. B. J. Campbell, First HSRC Director

We became multidisciplinary early Dr. Campbell hired other psychologists, but also a statistician, an epidemiologist, and an engineer. Began cross-disciplinary training early
We all worked on everything!

Major HSRC Accomplishments: 1970s

Child restraint program and research efforts (NC and national) First comparison of crash injury rates for different make/model vehicles Effects of 55 mph speed limit on crashes, with attempt to control for exposure changes Effects of NC motorcycle helmet law, resulting in no repeal of the law Study of young school bus drivers crash records, leading to raising minimum age Study of treat the bad/sick driver concept, showing that past crashes and violations are not good predictors of even a modest share of future crashes.

National Research in the 1980s

NHTSA
Vehicle crashworthiness research still major emphasis Research and programs concerning child restraint usage, adult occupant restraint usage, drinking and driving.

FHWA and NCHRP (AASHTO)

Safety research focused on how to fix and improve roadside hazards Not as much emphasis on research concerning roadway design or operations practices and policies.

Major HSRC Accomplishments: 1980s

NC Child Restraint Law (1982) and adult Seat Belt law (1985) conducted (legislatively mandated) evaluations of impact of both, continue to monitor benefits. Studies of seat-belt usage incentive programs for teens (also, Seat Belts Pay-Off, a model community level intervention using economic incentives) Study of deferrals of drinking drivers to education program rather than licensing sanctions showing higher crash rates resulted in changes in program. Long-term collaborative study with NC Substance Abuse Services agency of NCs alcohol screening/assessment for DWI convictees which changed the conduct of the program Study of the potentiating effects of alcohol on injury -influential in dispelling myth about drunks escaping serious injury in their crashes.

Major HSRC Accomplishments: 1980s (cont)

Development of the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) the first national multi-state safety database including crash and linkable roadway inventory and traffic flow data Research linking crash and ED data to demonstrate significant underreporting of bicycle and pedestrian injuries in police crash data, thereby bringing increased attention to the problem. Some of the earliest analyses of older driver crash trends, forming a basis for increased attention to this problem over the ensuing decades. Study of fatality/injury rates of some utility vehicles (e.g., Jeep CJ-5). This and other studies ultimately resulted in removal from market

National Research in the 1990s

Increased emphasis on roadway side in national research
FHWA developed crash-prediction tool for highway designers Interactive Highway Safety Design Model NCHRP (AASHTO) research on roadway design and traffic operations factors affecting safety

NHTSA
Emphasis on research on occupant restraint and DUI programs

Both FHWA and NHTSA began to emphasize pedestrian and bicycle safety.

Major HSRC Accomplishments: 1990s

Click it or Ticket first major statewide effort to combine significant public information with enforcement. DUI Vehicle Interlock evaluation, showing significant effectiveness in preventing DUI, but only if courts are convinced to have offenders use it. University measured drinking -- First ever field study of its kind and first to document the benefits of a social norm program in actually reducing student drinking. First ever study of the effect of alcohol level on risk of boating fatality (established the shape of the risk curve as a function of BAC). Graduated Licensing (late 1990s current) Developed, helped implement and evaluated NC program, and have been sought out for input on GL programs in 19 other states, with workshops likely covering all other states.

Major HSRC Accomplishments: 1990s (cont)

Authored National Bicycling and Walking Study, the guide for coordination of US pedestrian/bike research program. Safe Communities evaluations Collaboration with IPRC in one of first comprehensive evaluations of a demonstration "Safe Community" Pitt County program involving multiple community groups controlling a comprehensive crash-injury reduction program. Distracted driving One of first applications of in-vehicle video of driver behavior, bringing attention to sources of driver distraction beyond cell phones. Study of driver risk factors for involvement in drowsy driving crash one of few applications of case-control methodology to highway safety research problems.

National Research: 2000+

NHTSA
Continued research efforts on occupant restraints, alcohol and driving, and crashworthiness

FHWA and AASHTO/NCHRP

FHWA research to improve hazardous location identification and treatment, using state-of-the-art statistical methods (SafetyAnalyst) NCHRP continued to increase safety funding for roadway safety research related to the Highway Safety Manual But also broadened to non-roadway issues in AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan issues Of 22 areas/issues, 11 were nonroadway issues

Significant movement to pedestrian and bicycle issues by both NHTSA and FHWA Currently, major AASHTO, NHTSA, and FHWA support for long-term crash causation study SHRP-II (more later)

Major HSRC Accomplishments: 2000+

Pedestrian/Bicycle Information Center Multiple websites and a toll-free number providing technical information to 50,000 people per month, teaching pedestrian safety training courses, and providing research results and analysis tools to engineers and planners. Safe Routes to School Develop and provide technical assistance to schools, state coordinators, and the public on walking to school safely. Center for the Study of Young Drivers fosters multidisciplinary, multidepartmental research at UNC on causes and potential solutions for high teen driver crash rate Child Passenger Safety Resource Center Dissemination of accurate and up-to-date occupant restraint information statewide, focusing on 0-16 yearolds. Research broadening older driver focus to include mobility as well as safety why they stop driving, the consequences, and potential approaches for helping older adults continue to drive safely longer. Authorship of 9 of 18 AASHTO/NCHRP Series 500 Guides concerning effective programs to reduce crash injury for 22 different areas (e.g., run-offroad crashes, crashes involving teen drivers).

Failures in Highway Safety Research?

Speeding/speed control
Some success in traffic calming Current research on relationship of speed change and crash risk Little US use or research on photo speed enforcement Little knowledge about how to change driver speeding behaviors with speed limits, enforcement, etc.

Limited knowledge of true safety effects of many standard treatments both roadway and road user
Roadway Treatments (Harkey, et al.) 20 of 100 effect estimates were credible Series 500 Guides over 70% need better effect estimates

Pat Waller Failure is an opportunity to go learn more!

Future Challenges?
Funding (always the case) Coordination of research with multiple topics and funders reduce gaps and (unneeded) duplication.
Congressional earmarking plays a role here

Projecting future safety issues and insuring that adequate research funding is spent on those

The Good News!

Congressional-mandated Strategic Highway Research Program (SHPR-II)
Strongly supported by State DOTs Safety is highest funded of the four areas -- $45-60 million over five years Multidisciplinary, long-term crash-causation study (Both exciting and high-risk) Goal: Study how driver behavior changes due to interactions with roadway, vehicle and environment, and determine how these changes in behavior affect crash risk. 2,500 instrumented vehicles (with video of driver) for two years -- maybe 10,000 drivers

In Closing
HSRC (and I) have been fortunate to work in a growing field of research HSRC has taken advantage of this, and made major contributions to the field Not there yet, in terms of field recognition, research funding, results or successful program lots left to do! Its been a fun and exciting ride, it will continue to be And we hope you join us in the future journey!