Traffic crashes are a significant source of loss of life, personal injury and financial expense in the United States. In 2008 there were 37,261 people killed and an estimated 2,346,000 people injured nationwide in motor vehicle traffic crashes. State and federal agencies are beginning to focus traffic safety improvement effort on local agency…

When the deepwater horizon offshore oil drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, 11 crewmen were killed; the accident led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Forty workers on the rig managed to escape the catastrophe, thanks largely to a safety-training program they had taken at community colleges in the Louisiana Community…

Unprecedented uses of information and communication technology (ICT) and particularly social media (e.g., Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter) are occurring in times of crisis. This dissertation investigates the socio-technical practices emerging from the use of social media and how these practices help to "sustain the living heritage" of…

Traditionally, rehabilitation has been closely associated with vocational potential and return to work post-injury, or the maintenance of work attendance following the onset of chronic disease. Indeed, so close was the association that the terms "rehabilitation" and "vocational rehabilitation" were virtually synonymous. Over…

More than 11 million children attend more than 12,000 summer camps in the United States each year. The challenges to keeping children and the staff healthy and safe can be daunting. To better understand the types of illnesses and injuries common to the camp environment, the American Camp Association (ACA) has undertaken a 5-year study to document…

Life continues to hold considerable risk for adolescents in the United States. In 2006, the teen death rate stood at 64 deaths per 100,000 teens (13,739 teens) (KIDS COUNT Data Center, 2009). Although it has declined by 4 percent since 2000, the rate of teen death in this country remains substantially higher than in many peer nations, based…

Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are fairly common occurrences in all developed countries. Although only a small percentage of total MVAs result in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the high base rate in the population has resulted in the estimation that MVAs are the leading cause of PTSD in the United States. Occupations that require…

This study tested the importance of coping self-efficacy (CSE) perceptions and change in perceptions of CSE for recovery from motor vehicle accident (MVA) trauma. Data were collected 7 days following the accident (Time 1; n = 163), 1 month after the accident (Time 2; n = 91), and 3 months after the accident (Time 3; n = 70). Early changes in CSE…

This manual was developed for Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CSHO) of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to help them carry out their responsibilities when investigating workplace accidents. The content is presented in four sections. The first overviews the investigative roles of CSHO officers, including…

The mortality experience of the AFL-CIO United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America members was examined to determine current mortality patterns in a large wood-exposed population and a possible wood-cancer relationship. The data consisted of union members' mortality data (death claims and non-claim deaths) from 1971-1973 along with…

A project was designed to produce a broad description of current mining training programs and to evaluate their effectiveness with respect to reducing mine injuries. The research strategy was built on the ranking of mines according to the effectiveness of their training with an effective training effort being defined as that training which is…

A project was designed to produce a broad description of current mining training programs and to evaluate their effectiveness with respect to reducing mine injuries. Aggregate training and injury data were used to evaluate the overall training effort at 300 mines as well as specific efforts in 12 categories of training course objectives. From such…

Data from the 50 United States are listed for 1997 from Kids Count in an effort to track state-by-state the status of children in the United States and to secure better futures for all children. Data include percent low birth weight babies; infant mortality rate; child death rate; rate of teen deaths by accident, homicide, and suicide; teen birth…