Editorial: emerging issues in sociotechnical systems thinking and workplace safety.

The burden of on-the-job accidents and fatalities and the harm of associated human suffering continue to present an important challenge for safety researchers and practitioners. While significant improvements have been achieved in recent decades, the workplace accident rate remains unacceptably high. This has spurred interest in the development of novel research approaches, with particular interest in the systemic influences of social/organisational and technological factors. In response, the Hopkinton Conference on Sociotechnical Systems and Safety was organised to assess the current state of knowledge in the area and to identify research priorities. Over the course of several months prior to the conference, leading international experts drafted collaborative, state-of-the-art reviews covering various aspects of sociotechnical systems and safety. These papers, presented in this special issue, cover topics ranging from the identification of key concepts and definitions to sociotechnical characteristics of safe and unsafe organisations. This paper provides an overview of the conference and introduces key themes and topics. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Sociotechnical approaches to workplace safety are intended to draw practitioners' attention to the critical influence that systemic social/organisational and technological factors exert on safety-relevant outcomes. This paper introduces major themes addressed in the Hopkinton Conference within the context of current workplace safety research and practice challenges.

Sociotechnical approaches to workplace safety: Research needs and opportunities.

The sociotechnical systems perspective offers intriguing and potentially valuable insights into problems associated with workplace safety. While formal sociotechnical systems thinking originated in the 1950s, its application to the analysis and design of sustainable, safe working environments has not been fully developed. To that end, a Hopkinton Conference was organised to review and summarise the state of knowledge in the area and to identify research priorities. A group of 26 international experts produced collaborative articles for this special issue of Ergonomics, and each focused on examining a key conceptual, methodological and/or theoretical issue associated with sociotechnical systems and safety. In this concluding paper, we describe the major conference themes and recommendations. These are organised into six topic areas: (1) Concepts, definitions and frameworks, (2) defining research methodologies, (3) modelling and simulation, (4) communications and decision-making, (5) sociotechnical attributes of safe and unsafe systems and (6) potential future research directions for sociotechnical systems research. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Sociotechnical complexity, a characteristic of many contemporary work environments, presents potential safety risks that traditional approaches to workplace safety may not adequately address. In this paper, we summarise the investigations of a group of international researchers into questions associated with the application of sociotechnical systems thinking to improve worker safety.

An on-road assessment of cognitive distraction: impacts on drivers' visual behavior and braking performance.

In this on-road experiment, drivers performed demanding cognitive tasks while driving in city traffic. All task interactions were carried out in hands-free mode so that the 21 drivers were not required to take their visual attention away from the road or to manually interact with a device inside the vehicle. Visual behavior and vehicle control were assessed while they drove an 8 km city route under three conditions: no additional task, easy cognitive task and difficult cognitive task. Changes in visual behavior were most apparent when performance between the No Task and Difficult Task conditions were compared. When looking outside of the vehicle, drivers spent more time looking centrally ahead and spent less time looking to the areas in the periphery. Drivers also reduced their visual monitoring of the instruments and mirrors, with some drivers abandoning these tasks entirely. When approaching and driving through intersections, drivers made fewer inspection glances to traffic lights compared to the No Task condition and their scanning of intersection areas to the right was also reduced. Vehicle control was also affected; during the most difficult cognitive tasks there were more occurrences of hard braking. Although hands-free designs for telematics devices are intended to reduce or eliminate the distraction arising from manual operation of these units, the potential for cognitive distraction associated with their use must also be considered and appropriately assessed. These changes are captured in measures of drivers' visual behavior.

The direct cost burden of 13years of disabling workplace injuries in the U.S. (1998-2010): Findings from the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index.

INTRODUCTION: Although occupational injuries are among the leading causes of death and disability around the world, the burden due to occupational injuries has historically been under-recognized, obscuring the need to address a major public health problem. METHODS: We established the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (LMWSI) to provide a reliable annual metric of the leading causes of the most serious workplace injuries in the United States based on direct workers compensation (WC) costs. RESULTS: More than $600 billion in direct WC costs were spent on the most disabling compensable non-fatal injuries and illnesses in the United States from 1998 to 2010. The burden in 2010 remained similar to the burden in 1998 in real terms. The categories of overexertion ($13.6B, 2010) and fall on same level ($8.6B, 2010) were consistently ranked 1st and 2nd. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The LMWSI was created to establish the relative burdens of events leading to work-related injury so they could be better recognized and prioritized. Such a ranking might be used to develop research goals and interventions to reduce the burden of workplace injury in the United States.

Usability issues concerning child restraint system harness design.

A study was conducted to assess usability issues relating to child restraint system (CRS) harness design. Four convertible child restraint systems representing a wide variety of design features were used. Forty-two participants installed two child test dummies in both forward- and rear-facing configurations either inside or outside a test vehicle. Observer-scored checklists determined the degree to which each harness was installed correctly. Participant-scored questionnaires evaluated the 'ease-of-use' of various design features. While the percentage of correct installations exceeded 83% for all designs when installed in the forward-facing configuration, in the rear-facing position (that intended for children under 9-10 kg), there was a significant (between 65 and 89%) percentage of incorrect installations for all models. This finding is of particular interest and may be indicative of a more generalized problem with 'convertible' CRS designs when they are used in the rear-facing configuration. Furthermore, while certain design features were perceived by users as providing significantly better protection in the event of a collision, these also tended to be the features that were misused most often. The benefits and costs of various design features are discussed, and a method to test harness design usability is presented.

Task interruptability and duration as measures of visual distraction.

Tasks that are easily interrupted under intermittent viewing conditions may be less distracting while driving because they allow drivers greater control over task sharing decisions. This paper investigates the reliability and sensitivity of the occlusion paradigm as a potential means of measuring task interruptability and distraction. Twenty-four participants, between the ages of 21 and 34, completed two separate experimental sessions. In one session they performed three in-vehicle tasks (a radio-tuning task and two simulated visual search tasks) under occlusion and while unoccluded. In another session, participants completed the same in-vehicle tasks while driving in a simulator, without occlusion. The tasks did not differ in terms of total task time, yet significant differences were found using the occlusion paradigm and subjective workload ratings. Task interruptability and task duration both need to be considered when assessing the suitability of tasks for time-sharing with driving.

On-board safety monitoring systems for driving: review, knowledge gaps, and framework.

INTRODUCTION: Fatal highway incidents remain the leading type of fatal work-related event, carrying tremendous personal, social, and economic costs. While employers with a fixed worksite can observe and interact directly with workers in an effort to promote safety and reduce risk, employers with workers who operate a motor vehicle as part of their job have fewer options. New technologies such as on-board safety monitoring systems offer the potential to further improve safety. These technologies allow vehicle owners to collect safety-specific information related to a driver's on-the-road behavior and performance. While many such devices are being developed and implemented in both commercial fleets and private vehicles, the scientific examination of these devices has lagged by comparison. METHOD: In the current paper, we: (a) describe the general features and functionality of current generations of on-board monitoring devices and how they might impact various driver behaviors; (b) review the current state of scientific knowledge specific to on-board devices; (c) discuss knowledge gaps and potential areas for future research, borrowing from the related domain of computer-based electronic performance monitoring (EPM); and (d) propose a framework that can be used to explore some of the human-system interactions pertaining to monitoring systems. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Motor vehicle crashes can carry tremendous costs for employers, in terms of injury, disability, and loss of potentially productive work years. New technologies can offer tremendous benefits in terms of promoting safer on-the-road behaviors.

Future directions in fatigue and safety research.

Fatigue is regarded as a major contributor to workplace and highway morbidity and mortality. While the scientific literature is replete with studies that can be traced back more than a hundred years, much remains to be done to improve our knowledge of and ability to alleviate the consequences of fatigue. Moreover, given the dramatic transformation of modern work systems due to a global and 24/7 economy, there is increasing urgency in improving our understanding of fatigue as a safety risk factor, its etiology and management. As a result, a Hopkinton Conference was organized to review the state of knowledge in the area and define future directions for research aimed at preventing or mitigating the consequences of fatigue. The Hopkinton Conference paradigm brings together leading experts on a key research area to define scientific gaps and research needs, and serves as a stimulus for further collaboration. Over the course of several months prior to the conference, participants draft state-of-the-art reviews covering various aspects of the research topic. In this case, five working groups were formed, each charged with developing collaborative manuscripts in a given topic area of interest, as follows: the Link Between Fatigue and Safety, Demographic Issues in Fatigue, Predicting Fatigue, Technological Approaches in the Management of Fatigue, and Organizational Factors in the Management of Fatigue. The participants then convened for a 2 day conference at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in Hopkinton to review, debate, and revise the draft manuscripts; examine global issues; and discuss research priorities. The output from this collective effort is captured in this special issue of Accident Analysis and Prevention.

Research needs and opportunities for reducing the adverse safety consequences of fatigue.

Although there has been a significant amount of research on fatigue globally, it remains a major contributor to workplace and highway mortality and morbidity. Given its importance, a Hopkinton Conference was organized to review and discuss the state of knowledge in the area and to define future directions for research aimed at preventing or mitigating the consequences of fatigue. In all, five groups of international contributors produced six articles for this special issue, comprising state of the art reviews, along with a discussion of knowledge gaps and future research needs. In this concluding paper, we capture some of the major outcomes and recommendations from this process. These are organized into five topic areas: the link between fatigue and safety, demographic issues in fatigue, modeling and predicting fatigue, technological approaches to fatigue management, and organizational factors in fatigue management.

Effects of voice technology on test track driving performance: implications for driver distraction.

This work compares the degradation in driving performance associated with secondary tasks performed with voice-based and visual/manual interfaces, including radio tuning, phone dialing, and more complex tasks involving a sequence of interactions with an in-vehicle computer system. Twenty-one participants drove an instrumented vehicle while performing a combination of car-following, peripheral target detection, and secondary tasks on a closed test track. Drivers compensated for increased task demands associated with secondary tasks by increasing their following distance. Performing secondary tasks also resulted in significant decrements to vehicle control, target detection, and car-following performance. The voice-based interface helped reduce the distracting effects of secondary task performance. Modest improvements were observed for measures of vehicle control and target detection but not for car following. The results indicated that performing in-vehicle tasks required diversion of both peripheral (visual and manual) and attentional (cognitive) resources from driving. The voice-based interface reduced the peripheral impairment but did not appreciably reduce the attentional impairment. Actual or potential applications of this research include improvements to the design of invehicle information systems and the development of evaluation protocols to assess their distraction potential.