News and Notes

Volume 14, Issue 6, December

News and Notes is published online in advance of the official publication date.

Contact details for News and Notes submissions

News and Notes Editor:Michael Hayes

New Canadian standard for school transport vehicles

The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has published the standard CSA D270 on multi-functional activity buses (MFABs). This is the first Canadian standard developed to provide voluntary requirements for the new proposed class of vehicle. MFABs are intended to be used as a safer alternative to vehicles not classified as a school bus but which are still used to transport groups of school-aged passengers to sporting events, community activities, or other such educational or childcare facilities and outings. The new standard does not include requirements for traffic and pedestrian control devices such as warning lamps or stop arms, as these buses are not to be used for roadside pick-up and drop-off of passengers. The standard was initially proposed in 2006 as members of the CSA Technical Committee responsible for school bus standards began seeing non-conforming vehicles, or those not classified or tested to school bus standards, being increasingly used for the transportation of students for school-related activities in Canada. Currently there are no Canadian federal regulations pertaining specifically to new non-conforming vehicles that can carry 11 or more persons and are sold for the purpose of transporting students to or from school or school-related events. It will be at the discretion of provincial governments to determine if they will adopt the new standard in whole or in part and how they enforce the requirements.

New injury control research center

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has selected the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, to become the agency’s newest Injury Control Research Center. The Center for Injury Research and Policy will be working to better understand pediatric and adolescent injuries. It is the first CDC Injury Control Research Center to focus on pediatric injury research. With this designation, the Center for Injury Research and Policy becomes the 13th Injury Control Research Center funded by the CDC. CDC Injury Control Research Centers bring together scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines to conduct research focused on identifying injury problems and discovering more effective ways to prevent intentional and unintentional injuries. The Centers also serve as training sites for injury research and prevention programs and as an informational resource for the public.

41% reduction in Ireland’s child road deaths over 10-year period

A new report from Ireland’s Road Safety Authority (RSA), Child Casualties Report: 1997–2006, has revealed that there was a 40.7% drop in child road deaths between 1997 and 2006. Despite this reduction, the report shows that Ireland is still falling behind other EU countries, with figures showing that it had the second highest child casualty rate of the old EU 15 Member States in 2006. During the period 1997–2006, 43% of children killed were pedestrians, 35% were passengers in a car, and 14% were pedal cyclists. The report highlights that, of the old 15 EU Member States (where information was available), Greece had the highest child casualty rate in 2006, with 23 deaths per million population. Ireland had the second highest rate with 19 deaths per million population. The lowest rate was Finland with 5 deaths per million population. The report also shows that over the 10-year period 1997–2006, 198 children (14 years of age and younger) were killed and 855 seriously injured on Irish roads. Compared with 1997, figures from 2006 show a 40.7% reduction in the number of children 14 years of age and younger killed on the roads and a 51.5% reduction in the number of children in the same age group injured on the roads.

Review of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) research published

The occurrences of both injury and death that take place on the job are a significant public health problem in the USA, causing a substantial human and economic burden. Traumatic injury research at NIOSH is the sixth report in the series Reviews of research programs of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The Committee to Evaluate the NIOSH Traumatic Injury Research Program found the program’s research during 1996–2005 (the evaluation period for this review) relevant to reducing the burden of traumatic injury in the workplace and to have contributed to improvements in worker health and safety. To continue to reduce injuries and deaths to workers due to trauma, the committee recommended that the Traumatic Injury Research Program continues to: set goals within its scope and resources; work with other federal agencies that support injury prevention and control research to outline areas of collaboration; embark on a program to increase the visibility of traumatic injury research; develop a strategic plan for evaluating its research-to-practice efforts and for building the capacity to carry out these efforts; and consider research on the safety impacts of changes in the nature of work as well as intervention research targeting organization policies and practices. Further information: http://bit.ly/36FfHV.

CONTRIBUTORS

Contributors to these News and Notes include Anara Guard and Brian Johnston. Mike Hayes has edited the contributions. Items for future issues, including calendar entries, should be sent to mike.hayes{at}capt.org.uk as soon as possible.

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News and Notes submissions:

News items and calendar entries should be sent to:
Michael Hayes
The Child Accident Prevention Trust
22-26 Farringdon Lane, London EC1R 3AJ, UK 
Email: mhayes{at}capt.org.uk
Fax: +44 (0)20 7608 3674