• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.165-177
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• 2012

PURPOSES: The number of traffic accidents in 2010 was 226,978 in Korea, a high percentage of which up to 12.61% was due to drunk driving. As it is expected that the number of traffic accidents will increase because of the drastic increase of the number of vehicle registrations and the prevalent drinking cultures, it is necessary to understand the driving characteristics of drunken drivers to lower the increasing rate. METHODS: This study, therefore, comparatively analyzes the two groups - one group before drinking and the other after drinking - based on the graph, and implements the correlation in each scenario(1,2,3). scenario 1. appearance of jaywalkers; scenario 2. appearance of an illegal left-turning car; and scenario 3. appearance of a vehicle and a person as obstacles to the driver after an accident. RESULTS: The comparative analysis of speed shows that the group after drinking was 50km/h faster than the group before drinking in Scenario 1, 20km/h in Scenario 2, and 15km/h in Scenario 3 respectively. In the comparative analysis of acceleration, the average level of the group after drinking was 0.15 higher than that of the group before drinking in Scenario 1, 0.30 in Scenario 2, and 0.15 in Scenario 3. In the comparative analysis of deceleration, the average level of the group after drinking was about 0.4 lower than that of the group before drinking in Scenario 1, 0.35 in Scenario 2, and 0.2 in Scenario 3 respectively. In the comparative analyses, the item of speed, acceleration and deceleration was of significance for each group in Scenarios. CONCLUSIONS: The comparative analysis demonstrated that there is a difference between the group before drinking and the group after drinking. In the analysis of correlation in each group, it was proved that the drunken group was of significance.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2022

Purpose: The increasing use of electric personal mobility devices (ePMDs) has been accompanied by an increasing incidence of associated accidents. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of ePMD-related injuries and their associated factors. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Emergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance database from 2014 to 2018. All patients who were injured while operating an ePMD were eligible. The primary outcome was the rate of severe injury, defined as an excess mortality ratio-adjusted Injury Severity Score of ≥25. We calculated the adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of outcomes associated with ePMD-related injuries. Results: Of 1,391,980 injured patients, 684 (0.05%) were eligible for inclusion in this study. Their median age was 28 years old, and most injuries were sustained by men (68.0%). The rate of ePMD-related injuries increased from 3.1 injuries per 100,000 population in 2014 to 100.3 per 100,000 population in 2018. A majority of the injuries occurred on the street (32.7%). The most commonly injured area was the head and face (49.6%), and the most common diagnosis was superficial injuries or contusions (32.9%). Being aged 55 years or older (AOR, 3.88; 95% confidence interval, 1.33-11.36) and operating an ePMD while intoxicated (AOR, 2.78; 95% confidence interval, 1.52-5.08) were associated with severe injuries. Conclusions: The number of emergency room visits due to ePMD-related injuries is increasing. Old age and drunk driving are both associated with serious injuries. Active traffic enforcement and safety regulations regarding ePMDs should be implemented to prevent severe injuries caused by ePMD-related accidents.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2016

Purpose: This research aimed to provide baseline data for undergraduate safety education by evaluating paramedic student risk perception and safety practice behavior regarding transport and disaster-related accidents. Methods: A total of 367 paramedic students at three different universities were surveyed using questionnaires. Risk perception questions about hazard, feeling of dread, and uncontrollable factors regarding seven items in transport and disasters were asked on a 7-point scale. Safety practice behavior consisted of 14 transport-related questions and 12 disaster-related questions in 4-point scale. All data were analyzed using SPSS Window 21.0. Results: Of 367 surveyed, 54.8% (201) were females, and 28.9% (106) were freshmen. In risk perception, 'drunk driving' in transport was the highest on average obtaining 6.49 points for hazard and 5.12 points for the feeling of dread. In disasters, 'war' recorded the highest average with 6.61 points for hazard and 5.71 points for the feeling of dread. In safety practice behavior regarding transport and disasters, a higher awareness of the need for safety education correlated with a significantly higher the rate of safety practice behavior (p <.001 respectively). Conclusion: The results indicate that undergraduates have inadequate perception of risk in emergencies. Safety education programs are needed to raise awareness of risks and to increase the safety practice rate.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of unintentional-injury and to identify factors related to the high incidence of unintentional-injury in the community in order to provide useful data for the development of prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing unintentional-injury incidence. Methods: This study utilized data obtained from cross-sectional national surveys conducted for the 2001 National Health and Nutrition Survey targeting 37,769 individuals aged between 0 and 99 years old, which was performed using a face-to-face interview method. Demographic characteristics, unintentional-injury experience, types of injury, and attributes of health behavior were included in the study instruments. Results: About 1.3% of the subjects had experienced unintentional injury that required hospitalization at least once during the past year. Age older than 40 years, male gender, lower education, lower income, and blue collar workers were all significantly and positively associated with increased risk of unintentional-injury. Among the health behavior variables, sleeping less than 6 hours, drunk driving, and binge drinking were significantly associated with unintentional injury, while traffic accidents and falls/slips constituted 80% of all unintentional injuries. Conclusion: Public health efforts to reduce unintentional injuries should target high-risk populations such as males, those with low income and education levels, and binge drinkers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.12 no.1 s.24
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• pp.39-45
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• 2006

Based on the previous studies on alcohol effects on human behaviour and performance in transportation system such as air-plane and car driving, the alcohol exposure before and on watch of a ship has a great influence on subsequent behaviour. In this paper, to examine the drinking status of officers on board multiple choice questionnaires are circularized under instruction and surveyed for 118 officers. According to the results of the questionnaire survey on alcohol dependency (Alcoholism) that was invented by WHO, over 27 % of those surveyed represented alcohol abuse symptoms. In addition to that, the existing state and awareness for on-board-drinking was summarized to make a scenario of drink-operation with a ship handling simulator to investigate the effect of alcohol (0.08 g% blood alcohol concentrations) on ship operational performance. A main effect for alcohol was found indicating that ship operational performance was comparatively impaired by this alcohol relative to performance in the non-alcohol condition The results of this research can be applied to minimize marine accidents as basic data.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.37
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• pp.51-82
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• 2013

Traffic safety has been dramatically enhanced thanks to recent improvements in traffic environment. Nonetheless, many traffic accidents occur due to unchanging driving practices. Therefore, this study addresses the issues of traffic fine and penalty fine policies, and seek appropriate levels of traffic fines through a public attitude survey. For this purpose, a survey was conducted on 905 adult drivers over 20 years of age from 15 provinces and metropolitan cities. Analysis results are as follows. First, traffic environment in South Korea is generally not safe. Respondents perceive violation of traffic laws such as reckless driving, speeding and drunk and driving as an important cause. Second, 61.6% of respondents experienced over one speeding annually, but only 15.2% of respondents were caught in the last three years. Third, opposition to levels of traffic fines has decreased over the past, and responses were more positive when more information was provided. Fourth, to deter moral hazard of paying traffic fines to avoid traffic penalty points, traffic fines should be at least 50,000~70,000 won higher than penalty fines. Fifth, there was less opposition to implementation of accumulated penalty policy compared to income-based differential fine levels. Sixth, traffic fines for different types of traffic violations need to be reorganized. In conclusion, this study suggests the following policy improvements for the current traffic fine and penalty fine policies for violation of traffic laws. First, enough understanding and consensus must be developed for policy improvements. Second, administrative sanctions such as giving penalty points should be considered rather than financial sanctions. Third, there should be policy improvement for accumulative penalty. Current acts of traffic law violation should be reorganized.