jpri

Remembering Dr. William Haddon Jr.

Today is the birth anniversary of Dr. William Haddon Jr. who was born in Orange, N.J., on May 24, 1926 and is widely regarded as the father of modern injury epidemiology.
He was appointed in 1966 as the first administrator of the newly created National Traffic Safety Agency and the National Highway Safety Agency. The two agencies were consolidated in 1967 into the National Highway Safety Bureau (NHSB) and later, in 1970, it became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

As administrator of the NHSB, Dr. Haddon was responsible for setting the first Federal Motor Vehicles Safety Standards. Even today the FMVSS follows the concept of pre-crash, crash and post-crash in the listing of the standards as 100 series for pre-crash, 200 series for crash and 300 series for post-crash.

When a new political administration took office in January 1969 Dr. Haddon resigned from the NHSB, and shortly after he became the President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), where he remained until his death in 1985.Under his leadership IIHS became a leader in vehicle and highway safety research.

He argued for a more scientifically driven approach to injury control and created conceptual frameworks, such as the Haddon Matrix, for understanding how injuries occur and developing strategies for intervention. His pioneering efforts helped transform the highway safety field from one focused solely on accident prevention to one that examines human, vehicle and environmental factors to identify the range of pre-crash, crash and post-crash interventions for reducing crash losses. Dr. Haddon believed that “the understanding and prevention of disease and injury should be the first strategy of medicine and that treatment, no matter how necessary, is not the logical first line of attack.” Dr. Haddon was one of the first promoters of the airbag as a device for reducing injuries, and he remained its champion throughout the long debate over its effectiveness.

(Source: https://www.icorsi.org/dr-william-haddon-jr-1926-1985 with specific edits by Ravishankar Rajaraman)

In memory of this pioneer, who gave us the Haddon Matrix, we share two of his papers which will be an interesting read and an eye-opener for you.

Happy reading!

jpri

JPRI crash data helping make Mumbai Pune Expressway a Zero Fatality Corridor

In the year 2015, SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF) with the help and support of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and Mahindra & Mahindra embarked on a mission to make the Mumbai-Pune Expressway a Zero Fatality Corridor. JPRI joined this initiative as technical partners to SLF and has been supplementing this initiative by providing technical inputs in planning interventions and preventive measures through crash data and contributing factor analysis.

As per the Mumbai Pune Expressway (MPEW) Road Accident Study report, there is a visible decrease in the fatal crashes studied on the MPEW in the year 2017 (34%, 42 fatal crashes out of the 125 crashes studied)) as compared to the year 2016 (41%, 63 fatal crashes out of the 155 crashes studied). In the year 2016 there were 117 fatal victims from the 63 fatal crashes investigated whereas in the year 2017 there were 67 fatalities from the 42 fatal crashes. This reduction in fatalities if put in terms of reduction percentage translates as follows:

Reduction in fatalities per fatal crash investigated in 2017 from 2016 = 14%
Reduction in fatalities per crash investigated in 2017 from 2016 = 28%

The State Highway Police numbers for the same period are:

 

We see a reduction of 30% absolute fatalities on the MPEW, as per the Maharashtra State Highway Police statistics, in the year 2017 as compared to 2016.

 

This reduction is a combined effort of planned road engineering interventions and enforcement initiatives based on factors identified from the JPRI crash data analysis. The interventions were implemented on the MPEW starting from the second half of the year 2016. The primary targets of these interventions were:

  1. Improper lane change (through enforcement)
  2. Roadside/Median Object impacts (through road engineering)

 

We can observe visible difference in both the targeted factors. The difference observed for object impacts may seem less (7%) but if the objects impacted are studied then it is clearly visible that the concrete structure impacts that were targeted through the intervention of installing guardrails has been effective.

 

The increase in guardrail involvement in crashes is the reason for the decrease observed in the crashes involving the concrete structures. The guardrails have also brought down the severity of the crashes in which they are involved.

The aim of ZFC is to bring down the fatalities on the MPEW to ZERO by 2021. And with the positive outcomes as observed in the first year of implementation itself, we can be hopeful that we can achieve that aim.

The ZFC project is a novel initiative by SLF and demonstrates how crash data analysis can be put to use in reducing fatalities on roads.

jpri

C.R.A.S.H. DAYS conducted successfully.

JPRI organized the 1st C.R.A.S.H. DAYS program in Pune on 25-26 November 2017. There were 39 participants representing insurance companies, vehicle manufacturers, logistics companies, tyre manufacturers, road (civil) engineers, transportation engineering students and transport security and safety personnel. Overall, the event was well appreciated by the participants as they got a hands-on experience of conducting crash investigation and reconstruction.

jpri

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

Copyrights © JPRI 2021
Contact Us

Contact Us

 

Please feel free to contact us to discuss your requirement.

 

We will get back to you at the earliest.

contact@jpri.in