Road Safety

Please click below to learn more about some of our road safety projects.

[toggle title=”Department of Transportation Behavioral Data Analysis”]

PI: Corinne Peek-Asa
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Occupational and Environmental Health

Funding source: Iowa Department of Transportation

The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) has contracted with the UI IPRC to house and promote the use of transportation safety data as part of the Iowa Highway Safety Plan (DOT302). The UI IPRC has established an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and request protocol for the data, and has facilitated the use of the data by multiple investigators interested in behavioral and medical topics associated with transportation. Examples include school bus safety, ATV injuries, crashes with farm equipment, and medical response to crashes.

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Instrumented Farm Vehicle Roadway Study (SaferTrek)”]

PI: Cara Hamann
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Epidemiology

Funding source: Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health

Farm equipment crashes, which often involve a vehicle rear-ending or passing the farm equipment, are frequent causes of injury. We will use novel technology to objectively observe vehicles as they approach farm equipment, using a device called SaferTrek. SaferTrek is an innovative GPS/video integrated data system developed by our research team to record farm equipment roadway exposure and behavior of vehicle drivers approaching the farm equipment from behind. The goal is to observe vehicles as they approach the farm equipment. The aims in this phase are: Aim 1: Measure farm equipment exposure to the roadway (miles traveled, location) and the frequency with which cars approach the farm equipment; and Aim 2: Identify behavior of vehicle drivers as they approach farm equipment from behind.

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Evaluation of the Iowa Department of Transportation Enhanced Medical Referral and Evaluation Management System (EMREMS)”]

PI: Corinne Peek-Asa
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Occupational and Environmental Health

Funding source: Iowa Department of Transportation

The Iowa Department of Transportation is one of the first states to implement a system to track driving licensure decisions following a request for a driving performance evaluation, which is called EMREMS. Driving performance evaluations can be triggered by law enforcement, physicians, individuals themselves, or family members. The goal of the performance evaluation is to determine if the individual needs to have restrictions on their driver’s license. Currently, there is no method to identify the types of licensure decisions, if any, stem from performance evaluations. This project will use data routinely collected through EMREMS by the Department of Transportation to evaluate the performance of the system. The primary study aims are to examine quality of the data collected through the system, and also to conduct a system process evaluation of the EMREMS data.

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Integration of Data to Examine High-Risk Drivers and Vulnerable Road Users”]

PI: Cara Hamann
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Epidemiology

Funding source: Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau

The UI IPRC sits on the Iowa Statewide Traffic Records Committee, which has, through funds from the Governor’s Highway Traffic Safety Bureau, commissioned the Iowa Department of Human Rights and Juvenile Justice to link police-reported crashes with corrections data. The IPRC has worked with the Department of Corrections to evaluate processing of youth offenders, batterer’s education programs, and recidivism. Through these partnerships, we are collaborating to analyze these data. Specifically, the IPRC is examining patterns of citations and convictions following a crash, predictive factors for elderly driver, bicycle-motor vehicle, pedestrian-motor vehicle, motorcycle, moped, and teen driver crash-related charges and convictions.

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Iowa’s Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Survey”]

PI: Cara Hamann
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Epidemiology

Funding source: Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau

The UI IPRC has conducted the annual statewide Child Passenger Restraint Survey since 1996. UI IPRC researchers developed the first generation of the tool that is used in the field to collect key safety-related elements in each of the 3,000+ children observed each year. Similar to software updates, the UI IPRC has developed numerous improved versions of the tool over the years. The survey results have been instrumental in influencing three successful legislative efforts to strengthen Iowa’s child passenger safety law. After each policy change, the tool was modified to collect data that complies with the new version of the law. Other modifications have been made to the tool and the data it collects in order to facilitate more robust analysis of child passenger safety practices in Iowa. Download a pdf of the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center Child Passenger Safety Survey 2018

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Injury Frequency Before & After Implementation of All-Terrain Vehicle Ordinances”]

PI: Christopher Monson, Pediatric Critical Care Fellow, Pediatrics

Funding source: UI IPRC Pilot Grant Program

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Driver Behavior and Medical Outcomes Data Improvement and Linkage”]

PI: Cara Hamann
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Epidemiology

Funding source: Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau

[/toggle]

[toggle title=”Non-Motorized Traffic Monitoring”]

PI: Cara Hamann
University of Iowa, College of Public Health
Epidemiology

Funding source: Iowa Department of Transportation