Commuting Accidents in the German Chemical Industry

Railway-controller-perceived mental work load, cognitive failure and risky commuting

“…Finally, further limitations of this study are that it did not differentiate between safety in commuting to work and commuting back home (Zepf et al 2010) and that the study did not control for commuting duration and whether participants commute on busy city roads or quiet country or suburban areas. The study also has some advantages, however.…”

“…Indeed, a recent analysis of commuting accidents in the chemical industry in Germany showed that most commuting accidents occurred within a radius of 500 m from the company. The authors of this large-scale study specified time pressure at work as a primary occupational risk factor that should be analysed in more depth to explain the mechanisms involved in commuting accidents (Zepf et al 2010).…”

“…Further studies should also refer to task observation (Elfering et al 2006) and case histories from insurance data (e.g. Zepf et al 2010). Fourth, future studies should control for social desirability in conscientiousness scale and to test for the interaction of age and social desirability on conscientiousness judgments (e.g., Soubelet and Salthouse 2011).…”

“…In another French study using Police data manual work was associated with higher risk of commuting casualties (Charbotel et al 2010). A study in the German chemical industry by Zepf et al (2010) also reported rates of commuting accidents was moderately higher in blue collar than in white collar employees. Commuting accidents are also common in employees of high reliability organisations such as railways, power plants and hospitals (Kirkcaldy et al 1997).…”

The long arm of time pressure at work: Cognitive failure and commuting near-accidents

“…Indeed, a recent analysis of commuting accidents in the German chemical industry showed that commuting accidents occurred more frequently than at random in a radius of 500 m from the site. The authors of this large-scale study specified time pressure at work as the primary occupational risk factor that should be analysed in more depth to explain mechanisms involved in commuting accidents (Zepf et al, 2010).…”