Browsing by Author "Sullman, Mark J. M."

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    Factors affecting the risk of crash involvement amongst New Zealand truck drivers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Human Resource Management at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2002) Sullman, Mark J. M.
    Compared to countries such as Australia, England, Sweden and Finland, New Zealand has a relatively high rate of fatal road crashes. This high rate is not evenly distributed amongst the different groups of road users, with trucks being one group who are involved in a disproportionately high number of fatal crashes. Although truck drivers are an important group to study, if New Zealand is to reduce its relatively high road toll, very little research has investigated the role of human factors in the crash involvement of truck drivers. Drawing upon research amongst private vehicle drivers and safety climate research from other industries, the current study investigated the relationship crash involvement has with two personality traits (driver selfishness and mild social deviance), four different types of aberrant driving behaviour (violations, errors, lapses and aggressive violations) and safety climate. The violations factor was the only factor that directly predicted crash involvement amongst truck drivers. The relationship between violations and crash involvement was such that a one unit increase in the violations factor score increased the odds of being crash involved by 49%. Tests for mediation effects revealed that a number of other variables indirectly increased the risk of crash involvement. One of the four different types of driver selfishness, mild social deviance and safety climate all indirectly affected crash involvement through their relationships with other variables. The findings of this research highlight the important role human factors have in the risk of crash involvement amongst New Zealand truck drivers. Possible avenues for future research are discussed, along with the implications of the findings for decreasing truck drivers' crash involvement.
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    Increasing seatbelt usage in logging skidders through behaviour modification and seatbelt design : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1994) Sullman, Mark J. M.
    This study examined methods for increasing seatbelt usage in one type of heavy logging machine (the skidder). This machine is used extensively for extracting felled trees and transporting them from where they are cut down to a central processing area. Preliminary investigations suggested that the operators of these machines failed to wear their seatbelts because they were poorly designed and because the operators simply forgot. A survey of the literature on increasing safety behaviours found that the two most powerful techniques were behaviour modification and human factors engineering (or ergonomics). Therefore, these were the two techniques used here. The standard seatbelts were redesigned to make them easier to use and an orange flashing reminder light was installed into the machines of seven full-time skidder operators. These machines were operating in either Kaingaroa, Rotoehu, Tahorakuri or Te Whakao Forests in the central North Island of New Zealand. The experiment used a multiple baseline single subject design, with the subjects receiving each treatment twice. With the installation of the redesigned seatbelt, mean seatbelt usage for six subjects rose from 21% to 31%. One subject refused to wear a seatbelt throughout the experiment. Installing the reminder light increased seatbelt usage by a further 1%. Removing the new seatbelt design caused usage to drop 16%. A further decrease of 5% occurred with the return to baseline phase when the reminder light had also been removed. The second introduction of the new seatbelt resulted in an increase in usage from 10% to a mean level of 46%. This was increased a further 22% with the reintroduction of the reminder light. The results showed that an easier to use seatbelt in combination with a reminder light can increase the level of seatbelt usage. The results also provide further evidence of the power of both behaviour modification techniques and human factors engineering in the field of occupational safety.