Forensic Engineers and Consultants

Archive: Human Factors

Why Pedestrians Overestimate Their Visibility: A Dive into the Psychology of Road Safety

When we step out onto the road as pedestrians, most of us assume that we are easily visible to oncoming drivers. However, research shows that pedestrians frequently overestimate their visibility, especially at night or in low-light conditions. This overconfidence can lead to dangerous situations, contributing to accidents and fatalities. Understanding why pedestrians overestimate their visibility is crucial for improving road safety and preventing accidents. Read More

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Human Factors and Halloween Hazards: Trip and Falls

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Trick-or-treating is a fun and festive activity, but it comes with certain hazards that can pose risks to children and even adults. In addition to vehicle and pedestrian collisions and accidents, tripping and falling while trick-or-treating is a common hazard, especially for children navigating unfamiliar and dimly lit areas at night.

Children and adults can face tripping hazards on walkways while trick-or-treating.

Tripping hazards can be mitigated through compliance with walkway safety standards such as ASTM F 1637-2021: Standard Practice for Safe Walking Surfaces. ASTM F1637 is a standard that provides Read More

Human Factors and Halloween Hazards: Vehicle/Pedestrian Collisions

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Trick-or-treating is a fun and festive activity, but it comes with certain hazards that can pose risks to children and even adults. In addition to trip and fall hazards while trick-or-treating, there is also an increased risk of vehicle/pedestrian collisions due to the increased pedestrian activity in the roadway at night.

Child trick or treating during Halloween in the roadway.

At night, there are two significant problems facing drivers that contribute to pedestrian/vehicle collisions: Read More

Civil Twilight Pedestrian Collision: A Case Study

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Susan, a 45-year-old runner, was jogging in the early morning approximately an hour before sunrise, also known as “civil twilight.” Civil twilight occurs both before sunrise and after sunset when the sun is below the horizon and the sky is partially illuminated. Susan was wearing dark athletic clothing and grey tennis shoes for her morning run. She was running on the sidewalk in a suburban area and began to cross the four-lane road at an unmarked crosswalk. Read More

Rainy Day Troubles: A Slip and Fall Case Study

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An afternoon summer rain shower led to an elderly woman’s admittance to the hospital. Mrs. Jones, aged 68, entered a retail store to buy groceries for her visiting family. Mrs. Jones walked through the store’s vestibule toward the entrance where she slipped and fell, sustaining significant injuries. An investigation was conducted to determine the cause of the slip and fall incident.

The investigation revealed Read More

Surprise Slip and Slides  

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Falls were the number one cause of preventable non-fatal injuries and the number two cause of preventable deaths in the US in 2019 (CDC and NEISS data). Slip and falls occur when there is an unexpected loss of traction between a person’s foot and the walking surface.  Slip and falls are common and can occur in any setting where people walk, including homes, workplaces, and public areas. Slip and falls can result in serious injuries, particularly for older adults.

The human gait cycle consists of four phases: Read More

What You Don’t See Can Hurt You-Undercarriage Crashes

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A 43-year-old man driving his small vehicle northbound in the right lane of a rural two-lane paved road, was on his way to his favorite hunting spot in the early morning. He had two passengers with him—one in his front passenger seat and one in his back left seat. It was dark outside, and the weather was clear and dry. Along the rural two-lane road were large wooded private properties with no ambient lighting illuminating the roadway. Further up the road, a log truck began to turn left onto the road. Unable to entirely turn left in one fluid movement, the log truck Read More

The Difficult Task of Avoiding Pedestrians While Driving at Night

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An alarming 6,516 pedestrians were killed, and 54,769 pedestrians were injured as a result of traffic crashes in 2020 (NHTSA, 2022). A large majority (77%) of these pedestrian fatalities occurred in low luminance conditions such as nighttime while only 20% occurred in daylight (NHTSA, 2022). This dramatic difference between pedestrian fatalities during the night and day is seen even when controlling for driver fatigue and alcohol consumption (Owens & Sivak, 1996). This phenomenon prompts the question as what is so dangerous about being a pedestrian at night? Read More

If There is a Human, There are Human Factors

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If there is a human involved in the case, there is a good chance that human factors theories and principles will be applicable. Human factors is the study of people interacting with their surrounding environment. A human factors expert applies their knowledge of human capabilities and limitations to each unique case to assess the physical, sensory, and cognitive factors that caused a person to behave a certain way within the surrounding environment.

Consider the following situations in which a human factors expert would be beneficial: Read More

WARREN Welcomes Human Factors Consultant Ellen Szubski, Ph.D.

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Please join us in welcoming Human Factors Expert Ellen Szubski, Ph.D, to the WARREN family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ellen’s Areas of Expertise Include:

  • Human Factors & Safety
  • Illumination Evaluation
  • OSHA Regulations
  • Premises Liability
  • Slips, trips, and falls
  • Workplace injuries
  • Vehicle/Pedestrian/Bicycle Crash Investigation

Ellen Szubski is a human factors consultant with Warren. Her expertise focuses on the crash investigations and other personal injury matters. These matters often include collisions and/or crashes involving vulnerable road users and drivers, driver distraction, and slips, trips. & falls. She utilizers her knowledge of OSHA regulations, codes and standards in her analysis of premises liability incident and safety consulting.

Ellen graduated from Clemson University with a Master of Science in Applied Psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy in Human Factors Psychology. She did her dissertation on “The Influence of Pedestrian Biological Motion on Time-To-Collision Estimates at Night.”  Ellen is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society (HFES) and its Forensic Professional Technical Group.  She has presented multiple times at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual meetings.

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