Applications of Behavior Analysis to Prevent Injuries from Vehicle Crashes: Preface

E. Scott Geller

Margaret Moore wasn't “hooded” at our 1997 commencement, nor did she experience the joys of a family Christmas. On October 31st a drunken Virginia Tech student crossed a double-yellow line on Peppers Ferry Road and smashed head-on into Mrs. Moore's car. Both drivers and one of two passengers in the Tech student's car were killed. The blood-alcohol content of the 19-year old driver was 0.16 g/dL, twice the legal limit for intoxication in Virginia. The other college student killed in this crash registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 g/dL. Ironically, this disaster occurred one week after our annual university-sponsored "Alcohol Awareness Week" - five days of campus activities designed to educate students about the risks of excessive alcohol consumption.

Unfortunately, this type of tragic event is all too common in our country. Americans gather around more than 125 grave sites every day to mourn the losses of loved ones killed in a traffic crash. And, each year the disabling injuries from vehicle wrecks number in the millions. It's estimated alcohol is a causal factor in 50% of the fatalities and serious injuries from road collisions.

This monograph reviews intervention research designed to prevent injuries and deaths from vehicle crashes. The focus is on reducing alcohol-impaired driving and increasing the use of vehicle safety belts. Although I wrote the research review in 1992, the findings are still relevant today. The need for behavior-based interventions to improve road safety is certainly no less today than it was six years ago. And since 1992, the number of published behavior analysis studies in this problem domain has not been substantial. No intervention research conducted after 1992 contradicts the various conclusions reached by the research reviewed here, and the guidelines given for future research are still pertinent.

Leaders in applied behavior analysis with sincere concern for injury prevention offer insightful commentary following my research review. I recommend you read these critiques carefully for advice germane to all attempts to apply behavior analysis technology for large-scale benefits. In fact, this thoughtful scholarship inspired me to prepare a follow-up reaction which proposes a number of research questions and directions needed in the road-safety field, including a system for coordinating and motivating community-based activities to reduce the risk of alcohol-impaired driving and increase the appropriate use of vehicle safety belts and child safety seats. Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration coordinates a series of community traffic safety projects nationwide which contain many aspects of the plan I recommend in my follow-up commentary.

The critiques offered by these renowned researchers and scholars actually motivated me to alter the focus of my professional activities. Each commentary points out in one way or another the need for more effective dissemination of the intervention knowledge gained through behavioral science. Likewise, throughout my preparation of the research review, I was reminded of the urgent need to get the word out. As a result of applying behavior analysis to prevent injuries from vehicle crashes, we have learned things people can use today to reduce the probability of alcohol-impaired driving and the severity of injury from road crashes. We need to put our knowledge to work. To meet this challenge, I've been spending less time writing for the research community and more time spreading what we know about injury prevention to people who can use the behavior-change methods and tools to make a difference.

To do a better job teaching large-scale intervention information to the right audiences, I had to learn how to write for safety professionals and the general public. I had a lot to learn, and I'm still learning. This process was greatly facilitated by working with script writers in the preparation of several videotape training programs, as well as a 12-tape audiocassette series on “Actively Caring for Safety.” Since 1992 I've also been developing techniques for teaching behavior analysis principles and methods to various audiences by writing a monthly "Behaviors and Attitudes" column for Industrial Safety and Hygiene News, a magazine with more than 62,000 corporate subscribers.

My dissemination experiences, including numerous keynote conference addresses, guided and motivated me to author five books that teach behavior-based intervention strategies to people who can use them to prevent unintentional injury. One book was written for safety professionals (The psychology of safety: How to improve behaviors and attitudes on the job, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1996); three were published by J. J. Keller and Associates, Neenah, WI, for corporate safety leaders (Understanding behavior-based safety: Step-by-step methods to improve your workplace, 1997; Building successful safety teams: Together Everyone Achieves More, 1998; Beyond safety accountability: How to increase personal responsibility, 1998); and one book was written for the general public (Working safe: How to help people actively care for health and safety, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1996). In addition, each of the three books from J. J. Keller and Associates is accompanied by an illustrative videotape, a facilitator guide, and an employee workbook to help put behavior-based safety principles and methods into practice.

So preparing the research review documented in this monograph made me realize the need to teach what we know about prevention intervention to those who can be agents of change. And, the perceptive commentary supported this perspective and activated my behavior change. I'm grateful for that stimulation and direction.

The research reviewed in this monograph will teach you what we know about designing behavior-based interventions to increase safety-belt use and reduce alcohol-impaired driving. But there is so much more to be learned, and the commentaries pose critical questions to inspire and guide follow-up research.

The bottom line: Injuries and fatalities from vehicle crashes signify a most severe problem applied behavior analysis can help solve. But, we need many more researchers, teachers, and change agents to attack this life-and-death issue on all fronts. How about you?

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