Intro to resources

PACTS (Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety)
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is a registered charity and an associate Parliamentary Group. Its charitable objective is "To promote transport safety legislation to protect human life". Its aim is to advise and inform members of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords on air, rail and road safety issues. It brings together safety professionals and legislators to identify research-based solutions to transport safety problems having regard to cost, effectiveness, achievability and acceptability.

ROSCO (Road Operators' Safety Council)
The Road Operators' Safety Council (ROSCO) was set up in 1955 to promote road safety in the bus & coach industry; ROSCO administers the national industry-wide annual safe driving awards.

LARSOA (The Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association)
LARSOA is a national road safety organisation that represents Road Safety Officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK. It supports RSOs in fulfilling their statutory role - to reduce the number and severity of road accidents through education, training and publicity policies and programmes. LARSOA seeks to influence national debate - government policy and action, and public opinion - and works with other organisations to achieve common goals.

BRAKE - The Road Safety Charity
Brake is a national road safety charity (registration number 1093244) with two aims: * To prevent death and injury on the roads through education of all road users and campaigning for Government improvements to road safety. * To care for people who are bereaved or affected by serious injury in a road crash through support services, including a helpline and literature distributed through police officers.

Driving Standards Agency
The Driving Standards Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport (DfT) and is part of the Driver, Vehicle and Operator (DVO) group. DSA's aim is to promote road safety through improving driving standards by: 1) testing drivers, motorcyclists and driving instructors fairly and efficiently through the theory test and practical driving test; 2) maintaining the registers of approved driving instructors (ADIs) and Large Goods Vehicle Instructors. We are a national organisation and have headquarters in Nottingham, an impressive training and publications centre in Bedfordshire, administrative centres in London, Newcastle, Cardiff, Birmingham and Edinburgh and over 400 practical driving test centres across Great Britain.

RoadPeace UK
RoadPeace, the UK's national charity dedicated to supporting bereaved and injured road crash victims, was set up in February 1992 to meet the overwhelming need for a national organisation to represent and support this huge group of victims and draw attention to their almost non-existent rights.
RoadPeace champions the rights of road crash victims to ensure the trauma they suffer is acknowledged. To this end, RoadPeace researches and documents the experiences of road crash victims, using the findings to inform and influence policy makers, agencies, the media and the public.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is a registered charity established over 80 years ago and aims to campaign for change, influence opinion, contribute to debate, educate and inform - for the good of all.
By providing information, advice, resources and training, RoSPA is actively involved in the promotion of safety and the prevention of accidents in all areas of life - at work, in the home, and on the roads, in schools, at leisure and on (or near) water.

We raise awareness about the causes of road accidents and promote measures to help prevent them or reduce their severity. We provide information, education, training and publicity resources and services for road users and road safety professionals.

Eye For Transport
is a FREE information portal for the freight transportation industry loaded with case studies, white papers, Q&A with industry leaders, features and editorials and latest freight news updated daily. We also produce global events focusing on how new technologies change the freight industry.

EyeForTransport is one of the most comphrensive one-stop sites for access to international transport news, research and events. The site provides up-to-date coverage of air, road, rail, sea and logistics transport topics. It has excellent access and links to other sites, is updated frequently and has useful safety and training contacts.

Transport News UK
Frequently updated and comprehensive, Transport News offers extensive coverage of travel-related issues and news for the United Kingdom.

New Abstracts and Papers in Sleep (NAPS)
NAPS is a free weekly Current Alerting Service for the sleep field. Subscribers to NAPS receive, each week, an E-mail Alert of new citations in their specific Areas of Interest. This Week in NAPS has the papers for the current week. NAPS Archives contains all sleep and sleep-related papers for the current year. A search engine is availiable for searching by author, category, or keyword.

Sleep Home Pages
A diverse collection of homepages on sleep and sleep research. Content is varied and mixed.

The Journal of Sleep Research (JSR)
The discipline of sleep medicine is increasingly relevant to many associated therapy areas. The Journal of Sleep Research, owned by the European Sleep Research Society, is an international journal that encourages important research papers presenting new findings in the field of sleep and wakefulness (including biological rhythms and dreaming). The Journal reflects the progress in this rapidly expanding field, promoting the exchange of ideas between scientists at a global level.

Books and Resources on Sleep and Fatigue
A brief selection of scientific and more general resources on sleep and fatigue.

International Road Traffic and Accident Database (OECD)
IRTAD is an international database that gathers data on traffic and road accidents from 28 out of the 30 OECD Member countries. To assess national developments in the area of traffic safety more accurately, it is necessary to view them in an international context. IRTAD represents an indispensable tool for all national road administrations, road safety research institutes, car manufacturers, automobile clubs and insurers. The main part of the database, with 240 variables, includes aggregated data on injury accidents, road fatalities, vehicle population, network length, vehicle kilometrage from 28 countries (for 1965 and for every year since 1970).

Transport Management Research Centre - Middlesex University Business School
Formed in 1983, the Transport Management Research Centre draws on staff across the University who share a common interest in transport management. Their aim is to develop innovative solutions to fundamental problems, working in small teams that capitalise on a range of expertise including statistical analysis, operational research, psychology, engineering, marketing, visual culture and aesthetics, and IT.

USA Department of Transportation - Safety Division
Highway Deaths exceed 43,000; Transportation Secretary called highway traffic deaths a "national epidemic" and encouraged Americans to view wearing safety belts as a form of preventative medicine. Mixed results in the effort to reduce the number of people who die on U.S. highways each year. Data compiled by the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

USA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - Driver Fatigue

Arrive Alive
Road safety in South Africa, The Department of Transport has launched the Arrive Alive Road Safety Campaign as a short term initiative to reduce the carnage on South Africa's roads in 1997. The first campaign ran from 1 October 1997 to the end of January 1998. This campaign was applauded in November 1997 as one of the best initiatives to date and as being a significant step in initiating a positive change in the attitude of road users. It was reported that the number of accident and the fatality rates appeared to have decreased significantly since the launch of the campaign. During the second campaign - February 1998 – April 1998, driver fatigue was addressed as an important factor over the Easter holiday period when people travel long distances over a short time period.

Australian Academy of Science - Fatigue Research
Fatigue is thought to be one of the biggest killers on Australian roads, rivalling the effects of speed and alcohol. But the full extent of its role is not really known – unlike alcohol and drugs, fatigue can't be tested for in post-mortems. This is the reason for the big difference between the lowest and highest estimates of the role of fatigue in the Australian road toll. One study based on coronial and police reports found that fatigue played a part in only 5 per cent of fatal crashes in 1988. A more recent survey (for 1994) raised this figure to about 18 per cent. It included not only those crashes in which police identified fatigue as a cause, but also cases where the crash description suggested 'loss of concentration' had been a contributing factor. A third review found that around 30 per cent of rural crashes in Western Australia could be attributed to fatigue. And a fourth study, by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, reckoned that fatigue was a factor in over 16 per cent of the total crashes on Australian roads in 1998.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) - Fatigue Related Crashes
This report examines a proposed operational definition of fatigue, and the occurrence and characteristics of fatigue-related road crashes within Australia as identified by the operational definition. Fatigue represents a significant social and economic cost to the community in relation to road crashes, especially fatal road crashes. Fatigue-related crashes are often more severe than other crashes as drivers' reaction times are often delayed or drivers have not employed any crash avoidance manoeuvres. However, the identification of fatigue related crashes is hindered by the absence of a universally accepted definition of fatigue. Furthermore, it is difficult to quantify the level of driver fatigue due to the difficulties in objectively measuring the degree of fatigue following a crash.

Swedish Board of Accident Investigation
The Accident Investigation Board (SHK) was established in 1978. Initially, it investigated only accidents involving civil and military aircraft. In 1990 SHK's responsibility increased to encompass all types of serious accidents, whether they occurred ashore, at sea or in the air. An incident may also be investigated if it implied a serious risk of an accident. Examples of areas, other than aviation, where an accident may be investigated include shipping, rail traffic, mining, road traffic, as well as activities involving chemicals, nuclear materials, or medical technology. Normally, the seriousness of the accident determines whether SHK will investigate. However, there are specific situations in which the law dictates that an investigation is always carried out. In other cases, a judgement is made.

New South Wales (AUS) Roads and Traffic Authority
The RTA is the Australian New South Wales State Government agency responsible for: Improving road safety. Testing and licensing drivers and registering and inspecting vehicles. Managing the road network to achieve consistent travel times. The RTA manages 17,623 km of State Roads including 3105 km of National Highways. This includes facilities such as traffic lights, roundabouts, signs and linemarking. It also manages nearly 3000 km of Regional Roads and Local Roads in the unincorporated area of NSW where there are no Local Councils. It provides financial assistance to local councils to manage 18,497 km of Regional Roads and, to a limited extent, Local Roads, through funding and other support.

The European Road Safety Charter
Road safety is a major concern that is receiving an increasing amount of attention throughout Europe. Not only does it affect us all, but we all have a role to play in making our roads safer. The European Road Safety Charter is much more than a policy document. It is an invitation by the European Commission to take concrete actions, assess results and further heighten awareness about the need to reduce road accident fatalities. Through its Directorate General for Energy and Transport, the European Commission is playing a major part in the European-wide effort to make our roads safer. It wishes to give all stakeholders (institutions, associations and companies) the possibility to share ideas and practices and make their commitment to road safety more visible at the European level.