The risk of road traffic crashes for occupational drivers: A responsibility study with comparison to the general population
DOI: 10.3233/wor-220578
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
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Summary
This study investigates the relative risk of road traffic crash responsibility among occupational drivers compared to the general population, addressing a gap in understanding how work-related travel impacts overall traffic safety. While road accidents are a leading cause of work-related fatalities, the specific liability profiles of drivers commuting or working on duty have been scarcely studied. The primary objective was to compare the odds of being deemed responsible for an accident across four journey types: personal journeys, commuting to work, commuting home from work, and driving on duty. A secondary aim was to identify risk factors specific to these work-related contexts. The researchers conducted a retrospective responsible/non-responsible case-control study using data from the VOIESUR project, which analyzes police reports from 2011 in metropolitan France. The final sample comprised 7,051 accidents involving 69,352 weighted drivers aged 18–65. Drivers were classified as "cases" (responsible) or "controls" (non-responsible) based on expert panel assessments of causal behavior, rather than legal liability. Logistic regression models were employed to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for responsibility, adjusting for variables such as age, gender, socio-occupational category, vehicle type, and blood alcohol levels. Missing data regarding journey type were imputed using the Multivariate Imputations by Chained Equations method. The results indicated that drivers traveling on duty or commuting home were significantly less likely to be responsible for accidents than those on personal journeys, with ORs of 0.75 and 0.65, respectively. However, commuting to work carried a significantly higher risk of responsibility compared to commuting home (OR = 1.38). Among on-duty drivers, professional passenger-transport drivers exhibited the lowest risk of responsibility (OR = 0.25). In stark contrast, drivers on temporary or work/study contracts and professional light goods vehicle drivers faced the highest risks, with ORs of 11.64 and 29.83, respectively. Additionally, while on-duty drivers tested positive for alcohol less frequently than personal drivers, those who did drive under the influence while commuting home showed a higher risk of responsibility compared to personal drivers. The study concludes that while professional drivers generally demonstrate lower accident responsibility risks, likely due to training and experience, specific subgroups pose significant safety concerns. Drivers on temporary or work/study contracts, who often lack specific regulatory oversight, exhibit markedly elevated risks. The findings suggest that occupational risk prevention strategies should specifically target these high-risk categories and address the asymmetry in risk between commuting to and from work. This research provides evidence for tailoring traffic safety interventions to the distinct behavioral and regulatory contexts of different occupational driving groups.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-18 |
| archive | success | openalex | — | — | 5 | 2026-06-25 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-18 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-18 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-18 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-18 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-18 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
- Theoretical Contribution: theory or model