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Every citizen is faced with the risk of involvement in an automotive or transportation accident. Every physician has a responsibility to inform himself about the causes and epidemiologic characteristics of traffic accidents. The author of this book is a practicing physician who has taken this responsibility to the ultimate degree of seriousness. In so doing, he has produced single-handedly a monumental, scholarly, and comprehensive study of a major cause of death and disability.
A 26-page introduction surveys the problem of vehicular accidents and offers a holistic approach to their prevention. The following sections deal sequentially with the statistics of accidents; their epidemiologic characteristics (with special emphasis on the human factor); traffic medicine and predisposing states (fatigue, abnormal sleepiness, hypoglycemia, and alcohol-drug susceptibility); physiologic-pharmacologic-therapeutic considers (attention, perception, reaction time, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, amphetamines); improved driver function and traffic safety programs (improving driver vision, driver performance, and safety education); licensing of drivers