Reducing Vehicle Accidents at a Residential Agency cont.

by Michele F. Klein, Bethany L. McNamara
New England Center for Children
and
Richard M. Foxx
Pennsylvania State Univesity

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Results and Discussion

Figure 2 (below) shows the number of accidents per month during baseline and following intervention for the three groups. Group 1 had a total of six accidents during an eight month-baseline (.75 per month) and a total of five accidents (.31 per month) during the 16 months following intervention. Group 2 had a total of eight accidents during an 11-month baseline (.73 per month) and two accidents (.15 per month) in the 13-month period following intervention. During a 14-month baseline, Group 3 had a total of ten accidents (.71 per month) and four accidents (.4 per month) following intervention.

Following the intervention all three groups had at least four consecutive accident-free months. There also were no consecutive months in which accidents occurred. This study demonstrates how analyzing the accident data and providing training on identified problems was successful in decreasing van accidents across a large number of individuals. Most notably, accidents dropped to zero across all groups for a minimum of at least four consecutive months following the intervention. The increase in accidents that occurred approximately five months into the post-intervention follow-up suggests that booster training on the obstacle course could have been helpful in keeping accident rates at or near zero for longer periods of time. No accidents or injuries were incurred by the children or adults following the intervention.

Figure 2. Depicts the frequency of accidents across groups.

References

Alvero, A. M., & Austin, J. (2004). The effects of conducting behavioral observation on the behavior of the observer. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 457-468.

Ludwig, T. D. & Geller., E. S. (2001). Intervening to Improve the Safety of Occupational Driving. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.

Huybers, S., Van Houten, R., & Malenfant, J. E. (2004). Reducing conflicts between motor vehicles and pedestrians: The separate and combined effects of pavement markers and a sign prompt. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 445-456.

Massachusetts Department of Public Safety (2004). 2002-2003 Massachusetts Crash Statistics. Retrieved March 6, 2004, from http://www.mass.gov/portal/index.jsp?

Michele F. Klein New England Center for Children	..
Bethany McNamara New England Center for Children