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Abstract
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Modern conditions of transportation place an ever-increasing importance on the protection of the individual against injury. Interest in the development of a scientific research approach to the growing problem of injury and death from road vehicular-induced trauma has been generated by a number of public and private agencies. Germane to this is a recent Presidential charge to several of these agencies for the institution of such research. Extensive programs applying statistical techniques to problems relating to roadways and other environmental influences have been in process for some years. Studies also exist relating to the "packaging" problems of the occupants of vehicles under crash conditions. The significance of restraining devices which range from seat belts to improved door latches has been analyzed and improvements have resulted therefrom. Interior design of road vehicles is under continuing scrutiny. The influence of the driver in road accidents is beginning to be better understood and those influences which directly involve driver performance, especially the use of alcohol, are receiving great attention.
Relative to the information resulting from the above studies, there is a paucity of properly documented data in the realm of the causative mechanical factors Which relate to vehicular accidents. This is well exemplified by the small fraction of the United States Public Health Service funding of studies in this area of traffic safety. In the fiscal years 1962 and 1963, $134,000 were granted for research in this area; this is less than 5% of the total research funding of $2,700,000 in support of traffic accident studies in general. As pointed out by the chief of the research grant section, "this proportion is not the result of any deliberate decision on the part of the Public Health Service but simply reflects the interest of those who have applied for grants." In November, 1963 the California Coroners and Public Administrators Association, Highway Patrol, and State Department of Health began a joint study of blood alcohol and carbon monoxide involvement in single car fatal accidents on the California highways. In the course of the initial investigation of these fatal accidents it became apparent that the routine investigations conducted by traffic enforcement agencies were necessarily inadequate. The development of incomplete or erroneous conclusions relating to causal factors in highway accidents was seen to be virtually forced upon the investigating officer. One need only picture a harassed highway patrolman at the scene of an accident, frequently at night, often in the rain, charged with directing traffic, calling an ambulance, clearing the scene to allow normal traffic flow while a tow truck operator blithely hauls away the vital evidence of mechanical failure. Small wonder that the investigating officer's conclusion is often "too fast for conditions." It thus becomes very easy to recognize the potential for inaccurate or incomplete data gathering inherent in this customary method. |