IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i19p10268-d646471.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Winter Weather-Related Crashes during the Commute to Work: An Opportunity for Total Worker Health ®

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Davis

    (Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa, 145 North Riverside Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA)

  • Diane S. Rohlman

    (Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa, 145 North Riverside Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA)

Abstract

Background: The ways workers interface with their workplace and work are changing. These changes provide challenges and opportunities for health and safety professionals attempting to improve worker wellbeing for the future of work. For many workers, the morning commute, an activity typically outside the scope of workplace policies, is the most hazardous portion of the day. The hazard increases if workers are required to drive during winter weather or in other hazardous conditions in order to adhere to strict workplace start times. This research describes the role winter weather plays during the morning commute, demonstrating the need for organizational design and work arrangements that improve safety during the commute to work. Methods: Crash data from the Iowa Department of Transportation for the years 2013–2017 was linked to county level characteristics from the American Community Survey. Crashes were characterized by 30-min time intervals. The likelihood of the crash involving winter weather as a contributing circumstance was compared across time-intervals. Results: Winter weather was more likely to contribute to crashes during the commuting hours compared to 11:00 to 11:59 am. Winter weather was most frequently a contributing circumstance during 8:00–8:29 a.m. (OR = 2.21 95% CI: 1.93–2.52). Conclusions: Winter weather plays a role in crashes during commuting hours. Workplaces can adopt policies for flexible work start times or for telecommuting to empower workers to avoid hazardous driving conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Davis & Diane S. Rohlman, 2021. "Winter Weather-Related Crashes during the Commute to Work: An Opportunity for Total Worker Health ®," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-10, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10268-:d:646471
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10268/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10268/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ben Clark & Kiron Chatterjee & Adam Martin & Adrian Davis, 2020. "How commuting affects subjective wellbeing," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 2777-2805, December.
    2. Black, Alan W. & Mote, Thomas L., 2015. "Effects of winter precipitation on automobile collisions, injuries, and fatalities in the United States," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 165-175.
    3. Sara L. Tamers & L. Casey Chosewood & Adele Childress & Heidi Hudson & Jeannie Nigam & Chia-Chia Chang, 2019. "Total Worker Health ® 2014–2018: The Novel Approach to Worker Safety, Health, and Well-Being Evolves," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-19, January.
    4. Andrey, Jean, 2010. "Long-term trends in weather-related crash risks," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 247-258.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sara L. Tamers & Jessica M. K. Streit & Casey Chosewood, 2022. "Promising Occupational Safety, Health, and Well-Being Approaches to Explore the Future of Work in the USA: An Editorial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-7, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Burow & Christopher Atkinson, 2019. "An examination of traffic volume during snow events in northeast Ohio," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 99(2), pages 1179-1189, November.
    2. Raymond Hernandez & Elizabeth A. Pyatak & Cheryl L. P. Vigen & Haomiao Jin & Stefan Schneider & Donna Spruijt-Metz & Shawn C. Roll, 2021. "Understanding Worker Well-Being Relative to High-Workload and Recovery Activities across a Whole Day: Pilot Testing an Ecological Momentary Assessment Technique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Libin Han & Chong Peng & Zhenyu Xu, 2022. "The Effect of Commuting Time on Quality of Life: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Maria Marin-Farrona & Manuel Leon-Jimenez & Jorge Garcia-Unanue & Leonor Gallardo & Carmen Crespo-Ruiz & Beatriz Crespo-Ruiz, 2020. "Transtheoretical Model Is Better Predictor of Physiological Stress than Perceived Stress Scale and Work Ability Index among Office Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Tao, Yinhua & van Ham, Maarten & Petrović, Ana & Ta, Na, 2023. "A household perspective on the commuting paradox: Longitudinal relationships between commuting time and subjective wellbeing for couples in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. Hongmei Yu & Xiaofei Ye & Xingchen Yan & Tao Wang & Jun Chen & Bin Ran, 2023. "Searching for the Inflection Point of Travel Well-Being from the Views of Travel Characteristics Based on the Ordered Logistic Regression Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-20, November.
    7. Wang, Qing & Zhao, Wenjing & Ma, Shoufeng & Schonfeld, Paul M. & Zheng, Yue & Xue, Dabin, 2023. "Effects of a price incentive policy on urban rail transit passengers: A case study in Nanjing, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    8. Aditya Jain & Juliet Hassard & Stavroula Leka & Cristina Di Tecco & Sergio Iavicoli, 2021. "The Role of Occupational Health Services in Psychosocial Risk Management and the Promotion of Mental Health and Well-Being at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-24, March.
    9. Jessica M. K. Streit & Sarah A. Felknor & Nicole T. Edwards & John Howard, 2021. "Leveraging Strategic Foresight to Advance Worker Safety, Health, and Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-19, August.
    10. Angus Eugene Retallack & Bertram Ostendorf, 2020. "Relationship Between Traffic Volume and Accident Frequency at Intersections," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-22, February.
    11. Richard Todd Niemeier & Pamela R.D. Williams & Alan Rossner & Jane E. Clougherty & Glenn E. Rice, 2020. "A Cumulative Risk Perspective for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Professionals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-19, August.
    12. Gavoille, Nicolas & Hazans, Mihails, 2022. "Personality Traits, Remote Work and Productivity," IZA Discussion Papers 15486, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Melina Stein & Luca Nitschke & Laura Trost & Ansgar Dirschauer & Jutta Deffner, 2022. "Impacts of Commuting Practices on Social Sustainability and Sustainable Mobility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-18, April.
    14. Qingzhou Wang & Yaxuan Zhao & Lujia Li & Liying Kong & Wenjing Si, 2024. "Influence of Snowy and Icy Weather on Vehicle Sideslip and Rollover: A Simulation Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-30, January.
    15. Eve M. Nagler & Elisabeth A. Stelson & Melissa Karapanos & Lisa Burke & Lorraine M. Wallace & Susan E. Peters & Karina Nielsen & Glorian Sorensen, 2021. "Using Total Worker Health ® Implementation Guidelines to Design an Organizational Intervention for Low-Wage Food Service Workers: The Workplace Organizational Health Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Black, Alan W. & Mote, Thomas L., 2015. "Effects of winter precipitation on automobile collisions, injuries, and fatalities in the United States," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 165-175.
    17. Saudi‐Yulieth Enciso‐Alfaro & Salma Marhroub & Pedro‐José Martínez‐Córdoba & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2024. "The effect of COVID‐19 on employment: A bibliometric review of a she‐cession," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3444-3467, July.
    18. Palacios, Saúl, 2021. "Desplazamientos y autoempleo en Francia: diferencias por género [Commuting y self-employment in France: gender differences]," MPRA Paper 106555, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Timmer, Sebastian & Merfeld, Katrin & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Exploring motivations for multimodal commuting: A hierarchical means-end chain analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    20. Liliana Tenney & Amy G. Huebschmann & Carol E. Brown & Natalie V. Schwatka & Lee S. Newman, 2022. "Leveraging an Implementation Science Framework to Measure the Impact of Efforts to Scale Out a Total Worker Health ® Intervention to Employers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10268-:d:646471. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.