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24 September 2001
Physician counseling about safe vehicle travel for children.
Williams AF, Ferguson SA, De Leonardis DM. J Safety Research 2001; 32(2): 149-156.
Correspondence: Allan F. Williams, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22201-4751, USA (email: awilliams@iihs.org).
BACKGROUND: Despite gains in child restraint use, many children still do not travel safely in cars. Physicians play a potentially important role in educating parents about appropriate travel practices and influencing their behavior, although the evidence concerning how well they accomplish this is mixed.
OBJECTIVES: To determine the proportion of physicians who provide counseling about safe vehicle travel for children and to assess the characteristics of physicians who do and do not.
METHODS: Telephone interviews were conducted with about 1,500 higher- and lower-income Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic primary caregivers.
RESULTS: The majority of respondents (62%) said their physicians had never talked to them "about transporting your child safely in a car." A higher proportion of pediatricians compared with other physicians provided such information, although less than half did so. More higher-income Caucasians reported such communications, primarily because more of their children went to see pediatricians, and pediatricians more often provided injury-prevention counseling. Eighty percent of the respondents said their physicians had never spoken to them about the dangers that deploying airbags can pose to children in the front seats of vehicles. Respondents reported that their physicians were more likely to have discussed poisoning, burns, and fall prevention than car travel safety.
CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to car travel safety communications by physicians, and how these barriers can be overcome, need to be examined. Motor vehicles are the leading cause of death among children. Physicians, who have high credibility with their patients, need to do a better job of communicating to parents appropriate practices for transporting children safely in motor vehicles.
Evaluation of pedestrian speed in Jordan with investigation of some contributing factors.
Tarawhneh MS. J Safety Research 2001;32(2): 229-236.
Correspondence: Mohammed S. Tarawneh, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Jordan, Shmeisani, P.O. Box 926269, Amman 11110, Jordan (email: arabass@go.com.jo).
BACKGROUND: The safe design and operation of traffic signals must allow adequate time for pedestrians to cross safely. In Jordan, no specific guidelines exist on pedestrian speed. Rather, foreign guidelines that may not be applicable to pedestrians in Jordan are followed.
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this research were: (a) to evaluate pedestrian crossing speed in Jordan; (b) to evaluate the effect of age, gender, distance crossed (street width), and number of pedestrians crossing as a group (group size) on pedestrian speed; and (c) to recommend pedestrian design speed values to represent pedestrians in Jordan.
METHODS: Data of nearly 3,500 pedestrian crossing operations were collected at 27 crosswalks in the Greater Amman Area. Statistical analyses were conducted to reveal which factors significantly contribute to pedestrians' speeds.
RESULTS: Age, gender, group size, and street width were found to significantly contribute to pedestrian speed in Jordan. Pedestrians 21-30 years old were the fastest group of pedestrians and pedestrians over 65 years old were the slowest. Male pedestrians had significantly faster walking speeds than female pedestrians. Pedestrians walking as a group of three or more tend to be slower than when walking individually or in couples. Pedestrians crossing wider streets tend to be faster than when crossing narrower streets. The average and 15th percentile pedestrian speeds in Jordan were 1.34 and 1.11 m/s, respectively. In the design of traffic signals in Jordan, the 15th percentile speed of 1.11 m/s was recommended. This value is expected to accommodate at least 85% of pedestrian population.
CONCLUSIONS: In areas where older pedestrians, 65 years or older, are frequently encountered, a design speed of 0.97 m/s was recommended to accommodate at least 85% of this slower group.
Threats of School Violence in Pennsylvania After Media Coverage of the Columbine High School Massacre: Examining the Role of Imitation.
Kostinsky S, Bixler EO, Kettl, PA. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2001; 155(9): 994-1001.
Correspondence: Paul A. Kettl, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine, Mail stop MCH073, 500 University Dr, Hershey, PA 17033 (e-mail: pkettl@psu.edu).
BACKGROUND: Following the April 20, 1999, massacre at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo, school administrators, law enforcement officials, and the media reported a rash of successive bomb threats and threats of school violence that were attributed to imitation.
OBJECTIVES: To establish that the clustering of threats of school violence following the Columbine massacre was initiated by imitation.
METHODS: A database of threats of school violence reported to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Harrisburg, during the 50 days following the Columbine incident was examined to determine the daily frequency of threats. To determine factors that predict the occurrence of these threats, counties and school districts in which threats occurred were noted.
RESULTS: Pennsylvania school districts reported 354 threats of school violence during the 50 days after the Columbine massacre, far exceeding the 1 or 2 threats per year estimated by school administrators before 1999. The frequency of these threats over time demonstrated a crescendo-decrescendo pattern. Fifty-six percent of the threats were made on or before day 10 after the incident, and more than one third occurred on days 8, 9, and 10. Factors that predicted the likelihood of a school's receiving a threat after the massacre included a greater proportion of white students and larger school enrollment.
CONCLUSIONS: Successive threats of violence follow a publicized act of school violence. The media should recognize that imitation threats can occur and craft their stories accordingly. National Crime Victimization Survey: Injuries from violent crime, 1992-1998.
Simon T, Mercy J, Perkins C. Bureau of Justice Statistics and Centers for Disease Control Special Reports 2001; NCJ 168633.
Correspondence: Thomas Simon, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (CDC),4770 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, GA 30341-3724 USA (email: tgs9@cdc.gov).
BACKGROUND: In the United States, injuries from violent crime represent an important proportion of all injuries. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the primary source of information on criminal victimization in the United States. The NCVS doesn't examine emotional and mental trauma.
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the occurrence of physical injuries to victims of simple and aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and sexual assault.
METHODS: Data on non-lethal violence are from the National Crime Victimization Survey. The number of homicides are from the National Center for Health Statistics. The number of people in the population is from the US Census Bureau.
RESULTS: Approximately 2.6 million people were injured each year from violent crime -- 480,000 of them were injured seriously enough to require hospitalization or treatment in an emergency department. In addition, approximately 21,000 people were murdered -- 72 percent of them with a firearm. Rates of injury from violence were higher among the young, the poor, urban dwellers, blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Injury rates were lower among the elderly, persons with higher incomes, persons with higher educational attainment, and the married or widowed. When each characteristic was considered separately, a majority of the injured crime victims described the offender(s) as being male (80%) and white (60%). An intimate victim-offender relationship and the offender's consumption of alcohol or other drugs increased the likelihood of an injury to the victim. Computer Simulation of Stair Falls to Investigate Scenarios in Child Abuse.
Bertocci GE, Pierce MC, Deemer E, Aguel F.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2001; 155(9): 1008-1014.
Correspondence: Gina E. Bertocci, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, Rehabilitation Science and Technology, 5044 Forbes Tower, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (e-mail: ginaber@pitt.edu).
BACKGROUND: Stair falls are a common falsely reported injury scenario in child abuse. A knowledge of biomechanics may be useful to aid in distinguishing between unintentional falls and abuse.
OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate the usefulness of computer simulation techniques in the investigation of pediatric stair falls and to investigate the influence of stair characteristics on injury biomechanics of pediatric stair falls by using a computer simulation model.
METHODS: A computer simulation model of a 3-year-old child falling down stairs was developed using commercially available simulation software. This model was used to investigate the influence that stair characteristics have on biomechanical measures associated with injury risk. Since femur fractures occur in unintentional and abuse scenarios, biomechanical measures were focused on the lower extremities.
RESULTS: The number and slope of steps and stair surface friction and elasticity were found to affect biomechanical measures associated with injury risk.
CONCLUSIONS: Computer simulation techniques are useful for investigating the biomechanics of stair falls. Using the simulation model, it was determined that stair characteristics have an effect on potential for lower extremity injuries. Although absolute values of biomechanical measures should not be relied on in an unvalidated model such as this, relationships between accident-environment factors and biomechanical measures can be studied through simulation.
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Last modified: 21-Sep-2001.
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