Crash causation and prevention

Knowledge of crash causes is important because it directs the mind to the consideration of potential prevention actions and because knowledge of the frequency with which various causes arise in crashes is necessary for determining the promise of potential prevention actions. Clinical crash causation studies consistently found that in the majority of crashes the road user was the sole cause and that in almost all crashes the road user was one of the causes. This is a ‘quasi-finding’ which provides false respectability to a style of road safety management that makes the road-user the primary target of prevention actions. For the knowledge obtained by clinical crash causation studies to be useful ‘cause’ has appropriately defined.