van der Wal C Natalie, Robinson Mark A, Bruine de Bruin Wändi, Gwynne Steven
Department of Multi-Actor Systems, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.
Socio-Technical Centre, Leeds University Business School, Leeds, United Kingdom.
Saf Sci. 2021 Apr;136:None. doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105121.
Emergencies such as fires and terrorist attacks pose risks of injuries and fatalities, which can be exacerbated by delayed, ill-informed, or unmanaged responses. Effective emergency communication strategies could be used to better inform people and reduce these risks. This research analyzes videos of real-world emergencies to: (a) identify people's observed behaviors that increase risk during evacuations, and (b) examine which emergency communication strategies might reduce risk behaviors. We analyzed 126 publicly available videos of emergency evacuations in different emergencies (e.g., fire, terror attack, evacuation alarm, perceived threat). We found evidence of three types of risk behaviors (delayed response, filming, running) and four emergency communication strategies (evacuation alarm, staff guiding people to exits, general prerecorded message, live announcement). Our analyses suggest that having staff guide people to exits is the most effective strategy for promoting faster and more effective responses. However, neither live announcements nor pre-recorded messages were associated with delayed responses, while evacuation alarms were associated with more delayed responses than other communication strategies. Although people filming the incident was unrelated to staff interactions, it occurred more with alarms sounding and prerecorded messages, suggesting that these emergency communications might not prevent filming. Compared to no communications, all emergency communication strategies reduced running during evacuations. We discuss the implications of this research for identifying effective emergency communication strategies and reducing risk-increasing evacuation behaviors.
火灾和恐怖袭击等紧急情况会带来受伤和死亡风险，而反应迟缓、信息不畅或管理不善会加剧这些风险。有效的应急通信策略可用于更好地告知民众并降低这些风险。本研究分析现实世界紧急情况的视频，目的是：（a）识别人们在疏散过程中观察到的会增加风险的行为，以及（b）研究哪些应急通信策略可能会减少风险行为。我们分析了126段不同紧急情况（如火灾、恐怖袭击、疏散警报、感知到的威胁）下公开的紧急疏散视频。我们发现了三种风险行为（反应迟缓、拍摄、奔跑）和四种应急通信策略（疏散警报、工作人员引导人们前往出口、一般预录信息、现场公告）的证据。我们的分析表明，让工作人员引导人们前往出口是促进更快、更有效反应的最有效策略。然而，现场公告和预录信息都与反应迟缓无关，而疏散警报与其他通信策略相比，与更多的反应迟缓相关。尽管人们拍摄事件与工作人员的互动无关，但在警报响起和播放预录信息时发生得更多，这表明这些应急通信可能无法防止拍摄行为。与没有通信相比，所有应急通信策略都减少了疏散过程中的奔跑行为。我们讨论了本研究对于识别有效应急通信策略和减少增加风险的疏散行为的意义。
