THE DIAGNOSTIC TEAM IN ACCIDENT PREVENTION

A BRIEF HISTORY IS PRESENTED OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS AS APPLIED TO THE AUTOMOTIVE FIELD. INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUES DISCUSSED ARE: (1) IN-DEPTH APPROACH, (2) INTER-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH, (3) MULTI- DISCIPLINARY APPROACH, (4) DIAGNOSTIC TEAM APPROACH, AND (5) CLINICAL APPROACH. THE PROCESS OF SCIENTIFIC COLLISION INVESTIGATION SHOULD USE THESE APPROACHES, AND DEVELOPMENT IS NEEDED IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS: (1) THE IMPROVEMENT OF MASS DATA SYSTEMS, (2) THE DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY CONTROL TECHNIQUES ON THE MASS DATA SYSTEMS, (3) THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CAUSAL HYPOTHESIS FOR VERIFICATION BY STATISTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES, AND (4) THE UNCOVERING OF FAULTY DESIGN AND OPERATING PRACTICES TOO SUBTLE FOR DETECTION BY OTHER METHODS. EMPHASIS IS NOW BEING PLACED ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF ACCIDENT RECORDS SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES. IT IS POINTED OUT THAT THE ROLE OF HORIZONTAL CURVATURE IS GROSSLY UNDERSTATED IN THE STATISTICAL DATA AVAILABLE BECAUSE: (1) THE AVERAGE POLICE OFFICER OFTEN MAKES VALUE JUDGMENTS ON THE REPORT FORM ON THE BASIS OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE RADIUS OF CURVATURE, AND (2) COLLISIONS WHICH ARE INITIATED ON A CURVE BUT ACTUALLY OCCUR BEYOND THE POINT OF TANGENCY ARE ALMOST ALWAYS LOCATED, BY THE POLICE OFFICER, IN THE TANGENT. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS DESERVES A PROMINENT PLACE IN RESEARCH ON INVESTIGATIVE SYSTEMS.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 24, pp 36-38
• Corporate Authors:

  National Safety Congress Trans

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Segal, M D
• Publication Date: 1969

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crash investigation; Crash reports; Curvature; Data collection; Information processing; Prevention; Radius; Records management; Safety; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Horizontal curvature; Records
• Old TRIS Terms: Radius of curvature
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00220930
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 22 1970 12:00AM