Scientists Work on Measurment Tools for the Better Traffic Safety

The recent attempts to improve traffic safety have now been supported by the mathematical models which let the researchers to better assess the factors that determine the impact on the degree of injuries resulting from traffic crashes. The associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in Wayne State Univerity’s College of engineering, Peter Savolainen, has conducted a thorough review of research on that issue and pointed out a wide range of methodological issues that tend to complicate the analysis of injury severity data. According to Savolainen, there has been a substantial progress in gathering information that provide even more precise knowledge about crash outcomes. The traffic safety research aims at reduction the level of injuries coming from the crash and minimizing their severity. Researchers try to develop a statistical model that will cover all the possible aspects of the issue. Such models allow to conduct examination concerning the influence of different factors on the injury severity, which can be divided into a few categories including fatal ones (e.g. severely broken bones or head trauma), minor injuries (bruises and scratches) and the assumed injury (pain). The scientists check how the risk of injury increases, depending on the fact whether the accident is weather, road or driver-related. Savolainen is optimistic about the pace in which the research develops and the prospects for arriving at the best solution that is going to improve traffic safety.