Citation

Moffie DJ, Alexander C. Highw. Res. Board bull. 1953; 73: 32-41.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1953, National Research Council (U.S.A.), Highway Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A statistical analysis is presented of the relationship between preventable and nonpreventable accidents. One hundred over-the-road tractor-trailer drivers employed by a trucking company were used. This sample of 100 drivers was taken from a total driving population of 215 drivers. Accident distributions were studied by comparing poisson distributions based on the same means as the actual distribution. The statistical tool of chi squared was used in these analyses. Correlations were computed between two successive periods of employment for both preventable and nonpreventable accidents. Relationships of certain personal and psychological traits of these drivers with the number of preventable and nonpreventable accidents were computed. A graphic presentation of preventable and nonpreventable accidents was made. The co-efficient of correlation between accidents for the twelve months of employment was computed. It was determined that nonpreventable accidents tend to occur a given period of time more in line with chance expectancy than preventable accidents. Personal and psychological factors appear to be more related to preventable accidents than to nonpreventable accidents. Both the preventable and nonpreventable accidents tend to have notoriously low reliability or consistency of occurrence between two successive periods of time. Zero relationships exist between the number of preventable and nonpreventable accidents for a group of drivers for a given period of time.