Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; Injury Prevention and Research Center, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; Injury Prevention and Research Center, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Accid Anal Prev. 2018 Apr;113:257-262. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2018.02.002. Epub 2018 Mar 7.
Emergency vehicles, such as police, ambulances, and fire vehicles, need to arrive at the scene of emergencies as quickly as possible, and thus they often travel in emergency mode - using their lights and sirens and often bypassing traffic signals. We examined whether travelling in emergency mode increased crash risk among police, ambulance and fire vehicles.
We conducted a quasi-induced exposure analysis using data from the Iowa Crash Database for the period of 2005 through 2013. The data are maintained by the Iowa Department of Transportation (IADOT), Office of Driver Services (ODS) and includes all investigating police officer's reports of motor vehicle crashes. The quasi-induced exposure method is an approach to calculate crash risk in the absence of exposure data using vehicles without a contributing cause (did not contribute to the crash) as a proxy for the baseline driving population.
From 2005 - 2013, police vehicles were involved in 2406 crashes and ambulances and fire vehicles were involved in 528 crashes. Police vehicles were 1.8 times more likely to crash while driving in emergency mode than usual mode; this was a statistically significant increase. Ambulance and fire vehicles were not more likely to crash in emergency mode compared with usual mode. For police, other factors that contributed to crash risk included gender, age, icy/snowy roads, unpaved roads, and intersections. For ambulances and fire vehicles, other factors that contributed to crash risk included gender, age, weekends, icy/snowy roads and urban locations.
Crash risk increased when police vehicles drove with lights and sirens but did not increase for ambulance and fire vehicles. Further research is necessary to develop and evaluate strategies to mitigate crash risk among police vehicles. Cultural approaches which prioritize transportation safety in conjunction with reaching the scene as quickly as possible may be warranted.
应急车辆，如警车、救护车和消防车，需要尽快到达紧急现场，因此它们经常以应急模式行驶 - 使用灯光和警笛，并且经常绕过交通信号。我们研究了在应急模式下行驶是否会增加警车、救护车和消防车的碰撞风险。
我们使用 2005 年至 2013 年期间爱荷华州事故数据库的数据进行了准诱导暴露分析。该数据由爱荷华州交通部（IADOT）、驾驶员服务办公室（ODS）维护，包括所有调查警官报告的机动车事故。准诱导暴露方法是一种在没有暴露数据的情况下使用没有促成原因（没有促成事故）的车辆作为基线驾驶人群的替代方法来计算碰撞风险的方法。
2005 年至 2013 年期间，警车发生了 2406 起事故，救护车和消防车发生了 528 起事故。警车在应急模式下行驶时发生碰撞的可能性是通常模式下的 1.8 倍；这是一个统计学上显著的增加。与通常模式相比，救护车和消防车在应急模式下发生碰撞的可能性没有增加。对于警车，导致碰撞风险的其他因素包括性别、年龄、结冰/积雪路面、未铺砌道路和交叉路口。对于救护车和消防车，导致碰撞风险的其他因素包括性别、年龄、周末、结冰/积雪路面和城市地区。
警车在行驶时打开灯光和警笛会增加碰撞风险，但救护车和消防车的风险没有增加。需要进一步研究制定和评估策略，以降低警车的碰撞风险。可能需要优先考虑交通安全并尽快到达现场的文化方法。
