Safety culture in private and professional transport: examining its influence on behaviours and implications for interventions

It is widely recognized that safety culture is important for safety in organizational settings in hazardous industries, and in this project, we examine the utility of the perspective in road and sea transport. The safety culture perspective is quite new to the transport sector, and more research is needed for the perspective to be as crucial in the transport sector as it is in hazardous industries. In this project, we compare users of cars, powered two-wheelers, leisure boats, HGVs, buses and short sea cargo and ferry crew members in different contexts in Norway. We also compare safety culture in different transport modes and social contexts between Norway and Greece. We have chosen Greece as data show that it has a very poor transport safety record relative to most other EU countries. The main aims of the project are to examine the influence of culture on transport safety behaviour in private and professional road and sea transport, and to clarify implications for safety intervention strategies. First, we compare professional drivers. Qualitative interviews with bus drivers and HGV drivers in Norway and Greece were conducted, followed by a survey among 228 bus drivers and 208 HGV drivers in the two countries. Results show that HGV and bus drivers in Greece report of more aggressive violations in traffic. Aggressive violations were predicted by national transport safety culture, specified as descriptive norms. We found that bus drivers aggressive violations in traffic predicted their accident involvement, although work related variables were more strongly correlated. Results indicate that organizational safety culture contributes negatively to aggressive transport safety behaviours, meaning that a positive organizational safety culture may reduce (the negative impact of national transport safety culture on) aggressive violations in traffic. Second, we also study private car drivers in Norway (N= 596) and Greece (N=287), and results also indicate more aggressive violations among private car drivers in Greece. Comparing the professional drivers with the private drivers, results indicate that safety behaviours related to accidents were more similar among private and professional drivers within the national samples, than across the national samples. Moreover, drivers' safety behaviours were influenced by the behaviours that these groups ascribe to other drivers in their countries, indicating the existence of different national transport safety cultures, which may shed light on the different accident records in the two countries. Third, we also compare professional seafarers. The study compares crew members on Norwegian cargo vessels (N=93) and passenger vessels (N= 76) with crew members on Greek cargo vessels (N=99) and Greek passenger vessels (N=99). Organisational factors like demanding working conditions and organizational safety culture are the most important predictors of two types of unsafe behaviours: Risk acceptance/violations and Non-intervention/non-reporting. National safety culture was the most important predictor of respondents' tendency to work under the influence of alcohol/hungover. Respondents' occupational injuries are influenced by Risk acceptance/violations, nationality and age. The study indicates that safety culture at different analytical levels, influence different types of unsafe behaviours, which in turn influence the risk of work injuries. Thus, it is suggested that it is important to study safety culture at different analytical levels (i.e. the national, sectorial and organizational), to fully understand the influence of culture on safety in transport. Fourth, we also compare professional seafarers and private leisure boat users in Norway and Greece, discussing why the level of fatalities is higher among private boat users than among professional seafarers, and what the former may learn from the latter. Our study indicates that while unsafe behaviours related to work pressure and risk taking are important among professional seafarers (i.e. risk acceptance and violations), unsafe behaviours related to the leisure/holiday situation was important for the leisure boat users (i.e.alcohol use while driving a boat). Additionally, we discuss how the situation of private leisure boat users is less regulated than that of professional seafarers. Our study indicates that both in the professional and the private setting, norms for interaction and conduct seem to be influenced by norms and expectations rooted in different socio-cultural groups, e.g. the national culture, the specific sector in question, the organisations and in peer groups. Fifth, we also study how the safety culture perspective may inform preventive measures in both transport organisations and in authorities safety regulation. This research is based on both systematic literature reviews and extensive discussions of current best practices in transport organisations and in regulatory authorities, focusing on safety culture

Disse punktene utdypes i kapittel 6 I Resultatrapporten: I et relatert prosjekt som er meget relevant har vi estimert mulige konsekvenser for antall drepte og hardt skadde i trafikken dersom godstransportbedrifter i Norge innfører en tilnærming for å utvikle god sikkerhetskultur som vi kaller «Sikkerhetsstigen» for godstransport Anslagene i regneeksemplene indikerer at mellom 7 og 56 drepte/hardt skadde kan unngås årlig. Jeg har hatt et løpende samarbeid/eller kontakt med følgende brukere for å bistå dem i bruk av sikkerhetskulturperspektivet: Arbeidstilsynet, den Svenske Transportstyrelsen, ulike nøkkelpersoner i Vegdirektoratet, Oslo Kommune, HMS-ledere og ledere for Follobaneprosjektet til Bane Nor, Norges Lastebileier-Forbund (NLF), Norges Rederiforbund, en rekke ulike rederier, særlig i godstransport, men også i passasjertransport, fagforeninger, en rekke ulike vegtransportbedrifter og et stort antall båtforeninger.

It is widely recognized that safety culture is important for safety in organizational settings in hazardous industries,and in this project we examine the utility of the perspective in road and sea transport. We have chosen Greece for comparison since data show that Greece has a very poor transport safety record relative to most other EU countries. The project is organised in six work packages described below. WP1: Literature review to identify relevant measures of transport safety behaviours and safety outcomes in private and professional road transport and other key variables influencing the transport safety behaviours of these groups. WP2: Empirical study to examine whether and how membership in different sociocultural units (nation, sector, organization) influences transport safety behaviour and safety outcomes in professional road and sea transport.This WP will involve qualitatitve interviews (N=40) and surveys involving bus drivers and drivers of heavy goods vehicles(HGVs) and crew on short sea cargo vessels and ferries (N=800). We will also interview (N=20) and sample HGV drivers and cargo vessels in Greece(N=400). WP3: Empirical study to examine whether and how membership in different sociocultural units (nation, region, peer-group) influences transport safety behaviour and safety outcomes in private road and sea transport. We will conduct qualitative interviews (N=30) and surveys among users of private cars, PTWs and leisure boat owners, both sailing boats and motorboats (N=1600). WP4: Multivariate analyses, validation of scales and testing of relationships. WP5: Evaluate how the knowledge on group membership influencing TSC and the relative importance of TSC as a predictor of transport safety behaviour and safety outcomes can be used to increase transport safety. WP6 Communication.