70% of car accidents are caused by human factors. Car accidents worry all countries

By  Zhan Debin Liu Jie Guan Jianbin Xi Laiwang Deng Chen Tian Ye Wang Xiao

Life is as thin as cicada wings, especially when encountering a car accident, it becomes even more fragile and innocent. On August 19, a serious traffic accident occurred in Santa Rosa, Lara State, Venezuela, resulting in 13 deaths and 12 injuries. At about 0:00 on August 21, a car and a large truck collided in Yingkou, Liaoning Province, China. The collision resulted in the death of all six members of the family in the car… According to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in April, 1.2 million people die in traffic accidents around the world every year, and on average, one person dies in a traffic accident every 25 seconds; 90% of the car accidents are concentrated in Asian and African countries; in China, an average of nearly 300 people are killed by cars every day, of which nearly 70% are caused by human factors… On August 18, a report was released at the “Second Beijing International Rehabilitation Forum” A survey report showed that 46.9% of spinal cord injuries were caused by traffic accidents.

Relevant experts pointed out that the improvement of living standards has led to more people using cars. According to statistics from the Transportation Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, there are currently 148 million motor vehicles in my country, an increase of 2.17% over 2006. Therefore, people’s safety awareness needs to be strengthened. Only in this way can we live a healthy and happy life. So, how can people avoid “narrow encounters” with car accidents?

70% of car accidents are caused by human factors

 

According to data released by the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Safety of the People’s Republic of my country, in the first half of 2007, a total of 159,000 road traffic accidents occurred across the country, resulting in 37,000 deaths and 189,000 injuries. Compared with the same period last year, there were 11 fewer cases and 131 fewer deaths. Professor Fang Shouen from the School of Transportation Engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai told the Life Times reporter that foreign studies show that 95% of accidents are related to human factors, nearly 70% are caused by human factors, 8% are related to vehicle factors, and 28% are related to road conditions. Depending on the environment, the situation in our country may be different, but it is generally the same.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security of my country in 2006, 40% of deaths were caused by speeding and drunk driving, among which speeding was the number one killer (17%). Many people call people who have just started driving on the road “road killers”, but Fan Li, a well-known domestic expert on motor vehicle driver training and safe driving behavior research, said that the accident rate of novices is not high because they are cautious after all. The real “road killers” are people who have been driving for 1-2 years, and they are most likely to relax at this time.

Wearing the wrong shoes can also lead to a car accident. Fan Li said that some drivers wear sandals or high heels to drive, which may delay the timing of braking because the shoes do not fit well with their feet. A survey by an Australian insurance company showed that 60% of drivers involved in accidents wore stilettos or pointed shoes while driving, and nearly 38% of people slipped before the accident, so wearing flat shoes was the driver’s first choice.

Although wearing a seat belt is a well-known safety measure, it is still often ignored. Not long ago, the governor of New Jersey in the United States was injured in a car accident because he was not wearing a seat belt. Talking on the phone while driving will reduce the driver’s attention by 20% to 70%. In a recent car accident in Australia, a teenage boy who was driving and talking on the phone collided with a train and died on the spot. In addition, smoking while driving can also cause car accidents, and smoke stimulation can easily blur vision. Smoking 4 cigarettes in a row can reduce vision by 20%-30%.

Regarding the car factor, Fang Shouen pointed out that compared with foreign countries, there are various types of cars in China and the speeds vary greatly. There are BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes; there are also overloaded trucks, scrapped cars that have been “extended”, and even cars and bicycles in the same lane, directly endangering traffic safety.

“Traffic lights placed behind intersections” is one of the causes of frequent car accidents in South Korea. The country’s transportation department believes that this makes it difficult for drivers to notice changes in signal lights. Japanese engineers have found that the accident rate on wet roads is five times higher than on dry roads. When road drainage performance is improved, the accident rate is reduced by 1/3.

Car accidents directly threaten health

 

The causes of car accidents are different, but the results are somewhat similar – some lives disappear; other survivors are living tenaciously, or are recovering, or have already recovered.

Li Jiancheng, a doctor at the Beijing Emergency Center, told reporters that from January 1 to August 20 this year, the Beijing Emergency Center received 9,600 car accident alarm calls, an increase of 926 calls from the same period last year, accounting for 7.32% of the total. Taking August 6 to August 13 as an example, “120” dispatched a total of 4,582 vehicles, and the number of car accidents was 384; compared with the same period last year, it increased by 35%, and the number of calls increased by more than 1,000.

On August 21, the reporter learned from the China Rehabilitation Research Center that in recent years, more and more patients have been sent to the spine and spinal cord rehabilitation department of the center due to car accidents. “Among the more than 70 patients in our department, 50%-60% It was because of a car accident, the youngest of whom was only 8 years old.” Resident doctor Wei Bo said that traffic accidents have become the primary cause of spinal cord injuries, accounting for 46.9%. “Spinal cord injury will be accompanied by fractures of the cervical spine, thoracic spine, thoracolumbar spine, etc., resulting in movement disorders.”

In addition to spinal cord injuries, car accident survivors are also represented in the Department of Brain Surgery and Orthopedics at the Rehabilitation Research Center. “It’s okay for orthopedists to say that it can be connected; severe brain trauma may cause hemiplegia, but it is far less cruel than spinal cord injury.” Unfortunately, more than 50% of patients come to the spinal cord injury department due to car accidents.

Chen Bin (pseudonym), who is sitting in a wheelchair, told reporters about the nightmare five months ago – on the afternoon of March 3, Chen Bin, who worked as a car repairman in Jining, Shandong Province, accompanied a driver to the outer ring road to test drive. Freshly restored “Cheetah” off-road vehicle. “It rained that day, but our speed had to be 120 kilometers per hour.” Chen Bin tried to remember. He told reporters that he was sitting in the passenger seat and “wasn’t wearing a seat belt.” Due to the slippery road and some landslides on the road, the off-road vehicle suddenly hit the oncoming large truck… In the photo provided by the insurance company afterwards, Chen Bin saw the car he was sitting in. “The bottom of the car was completely It flew away, just like it exploded on the battlefield in Iraq.” The sudden car accident caused Chen Bin to suffer a spinal cord injury. He lost feeling below the shoulders, became incontinent of urine and feces, and found it difficult to take care of himself.

Illness and disability are a devastating blow to the entire family – sky-high medical expenses and huge psychological burdens, leaving many families impoverished. “We once treated a teenage child who was a paraplegic. He left after only a few days because he had no money.”

Countries take strict measures to prevent traffic accidents

 

Precisely because a car accident carries many lives, governments around the world are sparing no effort to find new ways to reduce traffic casualties.

South Korea: In 2004, there were 221,000 traffic accidents in South Korea. Today, this number has dropped by nearly 10,000, but drunk driving is still serious. “Especially on Saturdays, people will always drink openly.” Now, South Korea will The penalty standard for drunk driving – 0.05% alcohol content is reduced to 0.03%, that is, you cannot drive as long as you drink half a glass of wine.

Traffic accidents involving children have caused headaches for the government. In recent years, the South Korean government has spent 490 billion won to set up “school protection areas”, including strengthening sidewalks, guardrails, etc., to force drivers to slow down in school areas.

In order to allow drivers to notice signal light changes earlier, the Korean government said it will move 4,200 traffic lights in accident-prone areas to the front of intersections by 2011. As a pilot project, the Jeonju local government moved the traffic lights at 48 intersections in Jeollabuk-do in 2002, and traffic accidents at these locations have been reduced by 30%.

Australia: Figures from the end of last year showed that teenage drivers, who accounted for 13% of the driver population, were responsible for 26% of major accidents. In this regard, New South Wales has recently introduced a series of measures, including: starting from July 1, drivers with learner licenses are not allowed to use mobile phones while driving; drivers under the age of 25 are prohibited from carrying passengers under the age of 21 from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Passengers under the age of 15, etc.

Russia: In the first half of this year, 100,000 traffic accidents occurred in Russia, resulting in the deaths of approximately 12,000 people. In fact, in Russia, car crashes have almost become a “common occurrence”, and harsh brake sounds can often be heard in residential areas. At an intersection, when the traffic light is about to turn green, previously stationary vehicles will rush forward. The government has high fines for this: running a red light will be fined 700 rubles (about 200 yuan), and speeding will be fined 2,500 rubles. Minister of Internal Affairs Nurgaliyev said not long ago that automatic monitoring will be implemented by 2012.

United States: After the New Jersey governor’s car accident, wearing a seat belt became a focus of “review.” On the streets of New Jersey and New York, signs like “Seat Belts or Tickets” can be seen everywhere. The governor, who recovered from the car accident, also spoke out and called on people to wear seat belts. Otherwise, they will be fined at least dozens of dollars, and in serious cases, their licenses will be revoked.

Due to the increasing aging of drivers, more than 20 states in the United States have enacted special regulations, including that the elderly must undergo strict physical examinations and compulsory road tests when applying for extended driver’s licenses.

Japan: From January to June this year, less than 3,000 people died in car accidents in Japan. Management played a big role here. The government has even set up sidewalks on sparsely populated mountain roads. Some people joke that this kind of sidewalk is “used only by monkeys”, but it is still worth learning from.

The penalty for drunk driving has also been increased to “imprisonment of not more than 5 years and a fine of not more than 1 million yen.” Restaurants and bars also pay great attention to whether guests come by car. If they come by car, they will not serve alcohol; if they must drink, the restaurant and bar will be responsible for finding someone to drive on their behalf.

Malaysia: On August 13, a long-distance bus in Malaysia fell into a deep ditch on the roadside, killing 20 people and injuring 9 others. Transportation Minister Chen Guangcai immediately announced, “In the future, no matter which company’s bus is involved in a car accident, even if only one passenger is killed, the entire company’s buses will be banned from the road.”

Several ways to prevent traffic accidents

 

As the saying goes, “Every year you suffer, you gain wisdom.” Based on the tens of thousands of traffic accidents in my country every year and the experience of various countries, in addition to the macro-technical measures of the country and the government, several experts have also summarized many methods to prevent car accidents:

11:00-13:00 and 17:00-21:00 are “devil’s time”. Accidents in these two periods account for 40% of the total, especially at dusk, when the human eye is the slowest to react, prone to nervous and visual fatigue, leading to errors in judgment.

White cars are less likely to cause car accidents. Tests conducted by the Automobile Crash Laboratory of Tsinghua University show that white and silver-gray cars are the safest, while the accident rate of black cars is nearly three times higher than that of the first two colors. The accident rates from high to low are black, green, brown, red, blue, white and silver gray. Professor Zhang Jinhuan of the laboratory said that the color difference of white cars is the largest and that of black cars is the smallest. The greater the color difference, the higher the eye recognition, and the easier it is to attract the attention of drivers and pedestrians. Professor Hugh Furness from the University of Auckland in New Zealand said that the eye-catching bright red color is highly distinguishable and is relatively easy to cause visual fatigue and reduce visual sensitivity to other colors.

Car interior decoration can also affect driving safety. The interior adopts bright colors to give people a spacious and comfortable feeling. The ideal color combination is to use cool colors in summer and warm colors in winter to improve the driver’s emotional comfort.

Headlights should be turned on in the evening, early morning and in bad weather. Dr. Du Huiliang from the Automotive Crash Laboratory of Tsinghua University said that if you don’t buy a light-colored car, you should make the car body color contrast strongly with the environment. Fan Li said that in order to improve driving safety, headlights must be turned on low beam in the morning, evening and in bad weather, which can improve visibility. If you put some brightly colored stickers on the car body, the vehicle will be easier to see during the day.

Check your tires before hitting the road. Tires are the “most vulnerable link”, especially on highways. They may burst midway due to insufficient strength. Therefore, you should check and replace your tires every time before going on the road. “Old drivers usually decide whether to replace based on the mileage traveled, which is unscientific. Tires will also age and should be replaced within the specified time.” Generally speaking, the life of a tire is 3 years and 80,000 kilometers.

Pedestrians learn to “look left, look right, then look left.” When pedestrians cross the road, they should first look left to observe the vehicle, then look right, and finally look left again. Only after confirming that it is safe, can they cross the road in a straight line. You should be more careful at dusk, as this is the most dangerous time when drivers are least likely to spot you.