Impact of Adaptive Front-lighting Systems (AFS) on road safety: Evidences and open points

Almost four years after the entry into force of Regulation ECE 123 on Adaptive Front-lighting Systems (AFS) for motor vehicles, and once the first cars bearing them start to circulate, a comparison between the original idea of AFS and their potential impact in safety and accident prevention is possible. In this work, we present the basic concepts of this new way to light roads and analyse some unforeseen consequences that might arise within the ECE regulatory framework once the presence of AFS becomes massive. This paper also pretends to be an useful guide for some countries like China, still considering the best way to definitively regulate these complex systems whose impact on road safety is expected to be huge.     

英国职业健康与安全资质及启示

英国自20世纪80年代初期实施职业健康与安全资质制度以来,有十多万人通过了不同等级和专业的职业安全健康考试,为英国的职业安全健康保障做出了重大贡献。为了解英国职业健康与安全资质,学习借鉴其成功经验,在简要介绍英国国家职业资格制度的基础上,详细地介绍了英国职业健康与安全资质等级、种类、课程和考核评估方式等内容,总结了其主要特点,并结合我国注册安全工程师执业资格制度实施现状,提出了完善制度的建议。     

Investigating the impacts of crash prediction models on quantifying safety effectiveness of Adaptive Signal Control Systems

Introduction: Adaptive Signal Control System (ASCS) can improve both operational and safety benefits at signalized corridors. Methods: This paper develops a series of models accounting for model forms and possible predictors and implements these models in Empirical Bayes (EB) and Fully Bayesian (FB) frameworks for ASCS safety evaluation studies. Different models are validated in terms of the ability to reduce the potential bias and variance of prediction and improve the safety effectiveness estimation accuracy using real-world crash data from non-ASCS sites. This paper then develops the safety effectiveness of ASCS at six different corridors with a total of 65 signalized intersections with the same type of ASCS, in South Carolina. Results: Validation results show that the FB model that accounts for traffic volume, roadway geometric features, year factor, and spatial effects shows the best performance among all models. The study findings reveal that ASCS reduces crash frequencies in the total crash, fatal and injury crash, and angle crash for most of the intersections. The safety effectiveness of ASCS varies with different intersection features (i.e., AADT at major streets, number of legs at an intersection, the number of through lanes on major streets, the number of access points on minor streets, and the speed limit at major streets). Conclusions: ASCS is associated with crash reductions, and its safety effects vary with different intersection features. Practical Applications: The findings of this research encourage more ASCS deployments and provide insights into selecting ASCS deployment sites for reducing crashes considering the variation of the safety effectiveness of ASCS.     

重大危险源安全与自动化监控系统

对重大危险源实施系统、有效的安全监控是重大工业事故预防控制体系中的关键环节。文中给出了针对重大危险源监控全安全生命周期过程的整体实施流程,提出了重大危险源危险与风险评估的重点,探讨了重大危险安全与自动化监控的三层构建框架和工作过程,研究了安全系统与基本过程控制系统相独立的监控方式,给出了安全仪表系统的设计要求。     

氢安全研究现状及面临的挑战

氢能具有储运便捷、来源多样、洁净环保等突出优点,许多国家把发展氢能作为重要的能源战略。氢安全是氢能大规模商业化应用的重要保障。在分析国内外氢安全领域近年来最新研究进展的基础上,依次从氢泄漏与扩散、氢燃烧与爆炸、氢与金属材料相容性及氢风险评价等方面,系统总结了国内外氢安全研究面临的挑战,并对我国氢安全的发展提出了建议。     

Occupational safety and health in Spain

Occupational Health and Safety in Spain has improved considerably over the last decade, most likely due to a new concept where an overall concept of safety culture is defined. Important changes in industrial safety, hygiene, and psychosocial factors present an optimistic panorama for the future of Spain. Despite this general improvement, according to the European Convergence Program, Spanish statistics still offer far from good safety results. In fact, according to 1997 official statistics, Spain had the highest incidence rate for nonfatal occupational accidents of all European Union (EU) countries, and occupied third place for fatal accidents. This paper summarizes the organizational structure of the Spanish National System of Health & Safety at Work, its effective health and safety laws, and statistics on the Spanish work environment obtained from III Spanish National Survey on Work Conditions (1997). The researchers hope that the findings of this work will have an impact on Spanish industry that will subsequently bring about improvements in work conditions and develop assessment and intervention models in occupational health and safety, from a theoretical position integrating environmental, human, and organizational factors.     

A neuro-fuzzy algorithm for assessment of health,safety, environment and ergonomics in a large petrochemical plant

Process plants such as petrochemical units have been continuously trying to improve Health, Safety, Environment and Ergonomics (HSEE) programs. This study proposes an adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for assessment of HSEE programs in a petrochemical plant. The proposed neuro-fuzzy approach is applied to a set of operators in the petrochemical unit to show its applicability and superiority. To achieve the objectives of this study, standard questionnaires with respect to HSEE are completed by operators. The average results for each category of HSEE are used as inputs and accomplishment of HSEE programs is used as output for the algorithm. Moreover, this algorithm is used to rank operators performance with respect to HSEE. Finally, the algorithm identifies efficient operators with respect to HSEE. This is the first study that introduces an intelligence algorithm for assessment and improvement of HSEE program in a petrochemical plant.     

Stress and team performance: principles and challenges for intelligent decision aids

Advances in computer technology and artificial intelligence are providing powerful capabilities for developing intelligent decision aids (IDAs) to support operating teams in managing complex systems. Early system designs, which acted as independent computer advisors, constrained human decision making, were brittle and encountered problems of user acceptance. As a result, there has been a shift towards making IDAs more cooperative in assisting users to make decisions under stress. Although there is a growing body of research on how to design IDAs as collaborate team players, this article provides additional insights by focusing on the competencies manifested by efficient teams in adapting to stress. To this extent, a survey of how teams adapt their decision-making strategies, cooperation patterns and team structure has provided a good basis for proposing design principles for collaborative IDAs. The article concludes with some challenges for further developments in information technology and research needs in the area of teamwork under stress.     

Post-trip safety interventions: State-of-the-art,challenges, and practical implications

Introduction: Currently, risky driving behaviour is a major contributor to road crashes and as a result, wide array of tools have been developed in order to record and improve driving behaviour. Within that group of tools, interventions have been indicated to significantly enhance driving behaviour and road safety. This study critically reviews monitoring technologies that provide post-trip interventions, such as retrospective visual feedback, gamification, rewards or penalties, in order to inform an appropriate driver mentoring strategy delivered after each trip. Method: The work presented here is part of the European Commission H2020 i-DREAMS project. The reviewed platform characteristics were obtained through commercially available solutions as well as a comprehensive literature search in popular scientific databases, such as Scopus and Google Scholar. Focus was given on state-of-the-art-technologies for post-trip interventions utilized in four different transport modes (i.e. car, truck, bus and rail) associated with risk prevention and mitigation. Results: The synthesized results revealed that smartphone applications and web-based platforms are the most accepted, frequently and easiest to use tools in cars, buses and trucks across all papers considered, while limited evidence of post-trip interventions in -rail was found. The majority of smartphone applications detected mobile phone use and harsh events and provided individual performance scores, while in-vehicle systems provided delayed visual reports through a web-based platform. Conclusions: Gamification and appropriate rewards appeared to be effective solutions, as it was found that they keep drivers motivated in improving their driving skills, but it was clear that these cannot be performed in isolation and a combination with other strategies (i.e. driver coaching and support) might be beneficial. Nevertheless, as there is no holistic and cross-modal post-trip intervention solution developed in real-world environments, challenges associated with post-trip feedback provision and suggestions on practical implementation are also provided.     

澳大利亚职业安全健康统计体系及对我国借鉴研究

澳大利亚职业安全健康一直处于较好水平,其职业安全健康统计体系具有典型性。分析研究了澳大利亚的职业安全健康统计体系,包括统计相关法规,统计机构、统计指标、统计口径、统计方法和统计数据的公布等内容,总结了澳大利亚职业安全健康统计体系特点,并与我国安全生产统计现状进行比较,提出改进我国安全生产统计体系的建议,以期为我国安全生产统计体系的发展和变革提供参考。     

基于安全信息的安全执行及其失效机制研究

为了提高系统安全执行的有效性,改善系统的安全状况,开展基于安全信息的安全执行及其失效机制研究.首先,对安全执行的基础问题进行研究,包括其定义及一般过程;其次,从安全信息出发,结合解决问题的一般路径,对安全执行机制进行研究;最后,在上述分析的基础上,研究安全执行失效机制,并构建模型,明确安全执行过程中的重要节点.研究结果...     

Enhancing corporate compliance with worksite safety and health legislation

Introduction: A 2-year prospective study evaluated the effectiveness of a managerial training program to enhance corporate compliance with statewide worksite safety and health regulations. The program offered participants information about regulatory requirements and emphasized organizational and environmental strategies for reducing occupational injuries and illnesses. Objectives: To assess the effects of a train-the-trainer program on business managers' knowledge of statewide occupational safety and health legislation and on levels of corporate compliance with regulatory requirements. Methods: Forty-eight small- and medium-sized companies participated in the training sessions during the first year of the study. These firms were compared with 46 control companies that did not receive the training until the conclusion of the study. Results: Participation in the program was associated with higher levels of corporate regulatory compliance 12 months after the training sessions were held (controlling for baseline levels of corporate compliance with the regulations). Program effects on compliance levels were mediated by posttraining changes in managers' knowledge of regulatory requirements. Conclusions: The REACH OUT training program raised managers' awareness of and corporate compliance with statewide worksite safety and health regulations. Impact on Industry: Smaller companies face greater challenges than larger ones in developing and maintaining worksite safety and health programs. Barriers to regulatory compliance, especially in small- and medium-size companies, should be identified and removed to enhance the efficacy of these programs.     

Understanding the return on health, safety and environmental investments

INTRODUCTION: Traditionally, health safety and environmental (HS & E) investments have been viewed as expensive but necessary. HS & E professionals had a difficult task of providing data showing that these investments can also contribute to business success. An ORC task force developed a way for traditional financial analysis methods to be applied to HS & E investments and decisions. METHOD: The result of the task force effort is the software called the ORC Return on Health, Safety and Environmental Investments (ROHSEI), a supporting tool to provide a comprehensive look at health, safety or environmental investment projects and their potential financial impacts. RESULTS: Since its development, more than 200 companies, government agencies, and educational institutions have been trained in the ROHSEI process and software. CONCLUSIONS: HS & E professionals who are able to evaluate and communicate the business value of health, safety and environmental efforts will improve understanding of the impacts HS & E projects and contribute to better decision making by their organizations.     

构建煤矿职业安全卫生管理体系

安全生产是煤矿企业的头等大事。根据煤矿企业的实际特点 ,分析了煤矿安全生产管理的现状、特点和煤矿建立职业安全卫生管理体系的注意事项。讨论了建立煤矿职业安全卫生管理体系的步骤和方法     

Urban road space allocation incorporating the safety and construction cost impacts of lane and footpath widths

Introduction: Walkability continues to attract great attention from urban planners, designers, and engineers as they recognize not only the merits of pedestrian facilities in terms of the health benefits but also their demerits in terms of accident risk to pedestrians. Wide footpaths improve the pedestrian environment and experience, and thereby motivate travelers to walk as much as possible. However, if footpaths are too wide, they may leave a smaller space for the roadway. On the other hand, wide road lanes may lead to higher road vehicle safety but are costly to construct and maintain and also may leave little space for the footpath. Evidently, for a fixed urban space, what is needed is an optimal balance between the vehicle lane and pedestrian path. This problem is encountered routinely in dense cities including Hong Kong where land availability is severely limited. Method: To address the issue, this paper first establishes safety performance functions (SPFs) for the pedestrian space and the road space, using the random-parameter negative binomial regression. The results indicate the extent to which road lane and footpath width changes are associated with changes in in-vehicle occupant and pedestrian casualties. Then the paper uses the SPFs to develop a methodology for optimizing the width allocations to the road lanes and footpaths, duly considering the user (safety) costs and agency (construction) costs associated with each candidate allocation of the widths. Finally, the paper analyzes the sensitivity of the optimal solution to the relative weights of user cost and agency cost. Results: When user and agency costs are considered equally important, the optimal lane width is 5.4 m. Conclusion: It is observed that the road space allocation ratio used by the Hong Kong road agency suggests that the agency places a higher weight to user cost compared to agency cost. Practical Application: The findings can help incorporate design-safety relationships, and the stakeholders (agency and users) perspectives in urban road and footpath design.     

Development of pedestrian- and vehicle-related safety performance functions using Bayesian bivariate hierarchical models with mode-specific covariates

Introduction: Pedestrian safety is a major concern as traffic crashes are the leading cause of fatalities and injuries for commuters. Traffic safety research in the past has developed various strategies to counteract traffic crashes, including the safety performance function (SPF). However, there is still a need for research dedicated to enhancing the SPF for pedestrians from perspectives of methodological framework and data input. To fill this gap, this study aims to add to the current SPF development practice literature by focusing on pedestrian-involved collisions, while considering the typical vehicle ones as well. Methods: First, bivariate models are used to account for the common unobserved heterogeneity shared by the pedestrian- and vehicle-related crashes at the same intersections. Second, variable importance ranking technique is used, along with correlation analysis, to determine mode-specific feature input. Third, the exposure information for both modes, annual pedestrian count, and annual daily vehicles traveled are used for model development. Fourth, a recent Bayesian inference approach (integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA)) was adopted for bivariate setting. Finally, different evaluation criteria are used to facilitate comprehensive model assessment. Results: The results reveal different statistically significant factors contributing to each of the modes. The offset intersection provides better safety performance for both pedestrians and drivers as compared to other intersection designs. The model findings also corroborate the sensibility of using the bivariate models, rather than the separate univariate ones. Practical Applications: The study shows that pedestrians are more vulnerable to various intersection features such as left-turn channelization, intersection control, urban and rural population group, presence of signal mastarm on the cross-street, and mainline average daily traffic. Greater focus should be directed toward such intersection features to improve pedestrian safety.     

Development of inherent safety and health index for formulated product design

The numerous formulated products which are introduced to the market consist of chemical ingredients that may cause various safety and health hazards to the consumers. Therefore, it is extremely important to practice a systematic methodology to formulate products with acceptable safety and health performances. This work presents an index-based methodology to assess the safety and health hazards of the ingredients during the early formulation stage of product design. Hence, new inherent safety and health sub-indexes are introduced to improve the current safety and health hazards that are needed in formulated product design. The inherent safety and health sub-indexes are assigned with scores based on the degree of potential hazards. A higher score indicates a higher safety risk or severe health effect, and vice versa. The proposed methodology will greatly assist the users to identify the adverse safety and health effects caused by the ingredients. Hence, it is pivotal to eliminate or reduce the safety and health impacts from product usage. A case study on common ingredients used in the formulation of paint is presented on this study to describe the proposed method.     

美国职业安全健康标准体系现状研

为提高我国安全生产标准化水平,进一步发挥标准的技术支撑作用,收集了美国职业安全健康标准有关资料,对美国职业安全健康标准的分类、管理机构和管理模式、标准体系构成等进行了系统的梳理,归纳了美国金属非金属矿山（包括露天和井下）职业安全健康技术法规体系和职业安全健康技术法规体系（矿山除外）的要素构成,以及各要素规范的主要技术内容,分析了美国职业安全健康标准及标准体系的特点。为完善我国安全生产标准体系,加强标准制修订工作以及相关标准科研工作提供依据和参考     

浅谈英国职业安全健康细节管理

学习先进的市场经济国家职业安全卫生管理经验和方法,可以有效促进我国职业安全健康管理水平的提高。本文介绍了英国职业安全健康管理在法律法规、过程管理、现场管理、职业卫生等方面的细节表现,揭示出先进安全管理国家严谨细致的一面,为我国安全生产工作如何做好细节管理提供借鉴。     

CSHM: Web-based safety and health monitoring system for construction management

INTRODUCTION: This paper describes a web-based system for monitoring and assessing construction safety and health performance, entitled the Construction Safety and Health Monitoring (CSHM) system. METHOD: The design and development of CSHM is an integration of internet and database systems, with the intent to create a total automated safety and health management tool. A list of safety and health performance parameters was devised for the management of safety and health in construction. A conceptual framework of the four key components of CSHM is presented: (a) Web-based Interface (templates); (b) Knowledge Base; (c) Output Data; and (d) Benchmark Group. RESULTS: The combined effect of these components results in a system that enables speedy performance assessment of safety and health activities on construction sites. With the CSHM's built-in functions, important management decisions can theoretically be made and corrective actions can be taken before potential hazards turn into fatal or injurious occupational accidents. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: As such, the CSHM system will accelerate the monitoring and assessing of performance safety and health management tasks.