Police officers seat belt use while on duty

    Authors

    T. Oron-Gilad; J. L. Szalma; S. C. Stafford;P. A. Hancock

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Transp. Res. Pt. F-Traffic Psychol. Behav.

    Keywords

    seat belt use; police officers; Psychology, Applied; Transportation

    Abstract

    Typical seatbelt designs can interfere with police officers' operational work by lengthening their response time in threatening situations. Therefore, in certain operational circumstances there is a direct conflict between operational safety (effective response to threat) and driving safety (seatbelt use). To evaluate this potential conflict, 341 police officers from the southeastern US completed a questionnaire that included work related and non-work related seatbelt usage information. Factor analysis revealed five influential and significant factors; (1) travel context, (2) crime context, (3) confidence in seatbelt design, (4) speed and distance of travel, and (5) seatbelt ergonomics. These results confirm that seatbelts themselves in police cruisers currently represent a real safety concern of police officers in high threat circumstances. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour

    Volume

    8

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1

    Last Page

    18

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000227864700001

    ISSN

    1369-8478

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