Oil workers and seat-belt wearing behaviour: the northern Alberta context

Abstract

Objectives. Seat-belt wearing rates in the North reflect workers in the oil industry, necessitating sociocultural descriptions on the issue. The objective of this study was to describe how the social context influences oil workers' views of risk and seat-belt wearing behaviour in northern Alberta. Study Design. The study design was qualitative research. Focus groups were held with oil workers in three northern Alberta locations. Methods. Forty-five oil industry workers participated in 3 focus groups held in a different northern Alberta location, each consisting of 15 participants. Focus group discourse was centred on a series of questions that were clustered around the following themes: (1) propensity to take risks; (2) work patterns and workplace routines; (3) driving history and patterns; (4) self-disclosed seat-belt wearing behaviour; and (5) social relationships. Results. Northern oil workers believe that taking safety risks is an essential characteristic of who they are and where they work. Employers demand consecutive number of hours on the job and offer attractive incentives for working overtime that encourages risk-taking. Risk-taking also appears in driving where workers take numerous risks to get home after they have worked 12-hour shifts for 14 consecutive days. Most are situational seat-belt wearers, buckling up in inclement weather, at the presence of numerous logging trucks and the threat of drunk and/or fatigued drivers. Without prompting, northern oil workers consider fatigued driving as the most dangerous driving risk they experience in the north. Nearly every respondent has experienced fatigued driving after completing his last work shift in a 14-day rotation. Conclusions. Seat-belt wearing initiatives for oil workers during off-work driving should be led by the oil industries. For example, they could support and encourage the police to increase their enforcement, lobby the government for higher penalties, punish their workers Safety behaviour and driving who are caught not wearing seat belts and collaborate with local communities to develop programs that will increase awareness of seat-belt wearing. Because workers described fatigued driving as the key risk in the North, oil industries should become engaged in interventions, with seat-belt wearing as a vital component of fatigued driving. (Int J Circumpolar Health 2008; 67(2-3):226-234)

Innovation in qualitative interviews: “Sharing Circles” in a First Nations community: Table 1

“…These groups served as the cultural platform for examining local drug and alcohol misuse practices, community norms and systemic influences underlying impaired driving 13 14 27. The Sharing Circles were designed to capture these life issues in a way that supported traditional norms and values.…”

“…Other published qualitative studies have addressed the reasons for drinking and driving in adolescents 6. Qualitative methods have also been used extensively by Rothe (first author of this paper) in studies of traffic safety issues such as seatbelt wearing, impaired driving, traffic law enforcement and risky driving 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. In these studies, interview findings were used to capture the experiences of both injury victims and traffic law violators, in order to aid in the design and implementation of interventions aimed at improving the safety of vulnerable populations.…”

“…They incorporate oral traditions and styles of interaction entrenched in the culture. They are typically used to identify problems and determine solutions by providing culturally enriching environments that offer participants “balance” and “support” 14 30. The Sharing Circle is used to teach culture and tradition,31 promote health,32 and provide spiritual counselling and healing to members of indigenous communities.…”

Intersection-Based Link-Adaptive Beaconless Forwarding in Urban Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

“…Commercial drivers often involve in risk-taking behaviours as they are not monitored [21,22]. Additionally, since the drivers do not own the vehicle, they do not bear any financial burden in case of vehicle crash, which results in less responsible and more risky driving [23,24,25].…”

“…Video monitoring of commercial drivers while driving can contribute to improving road safety and can be used to caution the drivers and other vehicles on the road should there be any occurrence of unusual behaviour. According to the study carried out in [22], the use of driver monitoring resulted in an estimated average of 20% accident reduction. Moreover, drivers when aware of being monitored tend to change their attitude.…”