Services
Despite differences in their individual capabilities, people tend to detect, identify, and respond to objects and hazards in predictable ways, even in novel situations. It is the responsibility of designers and manufacturers to provide reasonably safe products and services. Human factors experts are trained to address these critical areas.
Driver Behavior
The driving environment requires the successful performance of a highly complex series of interconnected tasks, including navigating, speed regulation, observing posted signs and signals, and responding to unpredictable events in a safe and timely manner. Through experience, the cognitive processing demands of driving are greatly reduced, leading many to become complacent or distracted by secondary tasks.
Motor vehicle collisions occur when drivers unexpectantly encounter a roadway object or person, or become confused due to defects in the design and maintenance of the roadway. Construction zones often provide challenging environments in which to navigate, and must be designed to provide drivers with adequate and positive guidance.
A disproportionate number of collisions and crashes occur at night, due to reduced visibility. We evaluate the ambient, headlight and supplemental lighting in the area of the collision to determine what the driver could or should have seen prior to the collision. The conspicuity of objects, pedestrians and bicyclists is an essential component to a complete visibility analysis.
We have decades of experience analyzing driver behavior, including cell phone use and other in-vehicle distractions. Additional human factors issues relate to visibility (line of sight, nighttime), vehicle headlighting and illumination, perception, cognition, reaction time, and reasonableness of the driver’s actions.
Product Liability
Since the early 20th century, manufacturers have had the burden to provide products that are safe for the intended uses AND foreseeable misuses of their products. When product users are injured through the foreseeable use (or misuse) of a product, we analyze three phases of the product’s development: the design, guards and warnings.
Manufacturers have the responsibility to eliminate known hazards, or to take reasonable steps to guard the user from being inadvertently exposed to the hazard. If the hazard cannot be feasibly eliminated or guarded, effective instructions and warnings are necessary to alert and inform the user about the hazard, how to avoid the hazard, and the consequences of not avoiding the hazard.
We can determine the likelihood that the defect existed when it left the manufacturer’s hands, if the product was unreasonably altered, and if a defect was the proximate cause of an injury. Product liability often includes human factors analysis of the adequacy of instructions and warnings that accompanied the product.
Premises Liability
Property owners must maintain safe premises for patrons and invitees, even foreseeable trespassers. Many of these cases involve slips, trips and falls, in which human factors design principles are often violated, leading to the inability to detect and identify the hazard in enough time to avoid it. Common examples are sidewalks in disrepair, location and design of retail displays, and visibility and lighting issues.
Other needs for safe premises are locations where railroads are located in close proximity to pedestrian generators and accumulators, such as shopping centers and community parks. Passing locomotives and trains are considered an attractive nuisance, which draws onlookers, especially children. Effective safeguards are essential to protect the public.
Slips, Trips, and Falls
These are the most common premises liability cases that benefit from human factors testimony. Our analysis will determine if a reasonably attentive person would have recognized the hazard in enough time to avoid, and when applicable, refute claims that the hazard was open and obvious, based on established scientific principles and testing.
We also analyze the design factors that precipitate falls on stairs and same-level falls. Our engineering services are also able to demonstrate how a dangerous condition could have been reasonably and feasibly eliminated.
Visibility and Lighting / Illumination and Conspicuity
Workplace Safety
Machine Guarding
Manufacturers must provide effective guards to separate operators, in time or distance, from a hazard. These guards are often modified or removed, exposing workers to the hazard. There are many feasible solutions available to manufacturers and employers to ensure that their equipment is used properly. Lock-out-tag-out (LOTO) is a preferred method to reduce the inadvertent release of energy. Adjustable guards often provide reasonably safe and efficient operation. When guards are not originally present, modified, or removed, workers may be unknowingly exposed to an unreasonably dangerous condition.
Driver Distraction
It is commonly understood that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous. However very few people understand the cognitive processing issues that make the attempted multitasking so dangerous. People often suggest that talking on a cell phone is similar to talking with in-vehicle passengers, or adjusting the radio. And aren’t children an even bigger distraction? These are common opinions and questions, but they all are based on a poor foundation of the problem.
Drivers must concurrently perform several tasks to safely operate a motor vehicle, including speed regulation, lane-keeping, checking mirrors and other locations for potential conflicts, and responding to unexpected events. When drivers engage in other secondary tasks, such as cell phone use, additional time is required for them to detect and respond to roadway hazards. This delay in reaction time decreases the likelihood that drivers will be able to appropriately respond to an unexpected hazard in time to avoid a collision. Many other factors are considered when evaluating the ability of a driver to detect a roadway hazard, including the driver’s expectation of the hazard, the available illumination, and the size, color and contrast of the object. In addition, our research has demonstrated how the cognitive distractions create an “inattention blindness”, which inhibits drivers from detecting and responding to roadway hazards at all, even when other factors are adequate for detection.
Driver Behavior
The driving environment requires the successful performance of a highly complex series of interconnected tasks, including navigating, speed regulation, observing posted signs and signals, and responding to unpredictable events in a safe and timely manner. Through experience, the cognitive processing demands of driving are greatly reduced, leading many to become complacent or distracted by secondary tasks.
Motor vehicle collisions occur when drivers unexpectantly encounter a roadway object or person, or become confused due to defects in the design and maintenance of the roadway. Construction zones often provide challenging environments in which to navigate, and must be designed to provide drivers with adequate and positive guidance.
A disproportionate number of collisions and crashes occur at night, due to reduced visibility. We evaluate the ambient, headlight and supplemental lighting in the area of the collision to determine what the driver could or should have seen prior to the collision. The conspicuity of objects, pedestrians and bicyclists is an essential component to a complete visibility analysis.
We have decades of experience analyzing driver behavior, including cell phone use and other in-vehicle distractions. Additional human factors issues relate to visibility (line of sight, nighttime), vehicle headlighting and illumination, perception, cognition, reaction time, and reasonableness of the driver’s actions.
Product Liability
Since the early 20th century, manufacturers have had the burden to provide products that are safe for the intended uses AND foreseeable misuses of their products. When product users are injured through the foreseeable use (or misuse) of a product, we analyze three phases of the product’s development: the design, guards and warnings.
Manufacturers have the responsibility to eliminate known hazards, or to take reasonable steps to guard the user from being inadvertently exposed to the hazard. If the hazard cannot be feasibly eliminated or guarded, effective instructions and warnings are necessary to alert and inform the user about the hazard, how to avoid the hazard, and the consequences of not avoiding the hazard.
We can determine the likelihood that the defect existed when it left the manufacturer’s hands, if the product was unreasonably altered, and if a defect was the proximate cause of an injury. Product liability often includes human factors analysis of the adequacy of instructions and warnings that accompanied the product.
Premesis Liability
Property owners must maintain safe premises for patrons and invitees, even foreseeable trespassers. Many of these cases involve slips, trips and falls, in which human factors design principles are often violated, leading to the inability to detect and identify the hazard in enough time to avoid it. Common examples are sidewalks in disrepair, location and design of retail displays, and visibility and lighting issues.
Other needs for safe premises are locations where railroads are located in close proximity to pedestrian generators and accumulators, such as shopping centers and community parks. Passing locomotives and trains are considered an attractive nuisance, which draws onlookers, especially children. Effective safeguards are essential to protect the public.
Slips, Trips, and Falls
These are the most common premises liability cases that benefit from human factors testimony. Our analysis will determine if a reasonably attentive person would have recognized the hazard in enough time to avoid, and when applicable, refute claims that the hazard was open and obvious, based on established scientific principles and testing.
We also analyze the design factors that precipitate falls on stairs and same-level falls. Our engineering services are also able to demonstrate how a dangerous condition could have been reasonably and feasibly eliminated.
Visibility and Lighting / Illumination and Conspicuity
In order for people to recognize and avoid dangerous conditions, they must be able to see the hazard. Adequate illumination is critical for people to detect and identify hazards in time to avoid them. We measure the illumination and reflectivity of objects to determine their relative contrast, and the resulting conspicuity. Common areas of human factors analysis includes the retroreflective efficacy of conspicuity tape for commercial motor vehicles, the illumination and conspicuity of pedestrians in the roadway, and pedestrian walkways and stairways that require adequate illumination to detect dangerous conditions.
Workplace Safety
Almost 4,000,000 U.S. workers are injured annually, and a U.S. worker dies as a result of a workplace injury every 2 hours. While the Workers’ Compensation system was designed to provide financial support to those injured at work by spreading the compensation across companies throughout the country, many injuries are not the direct result of the employers’ work practices, but rather other entities. Our training and experience in occupational safety and health provide the foundation to investigate defective environments, tasks and products, and the actions of multiple entities on a job site.
Machine Guarding
Manufacturers must provide effective guards to separate operators, in time or distance, from a hazard. These guards are often modified or removed, exposing workers to the hazard. There are many feasible solutions available to manufacturers and employers to ensure that their equipment is used properly. Lock-out-tag-out (LOTO) is a preferred method to reduce the inadvertent release of energy. Adjustable guards often provide reasonably safe and efficient operation. When guards are not originally present, modified, or removed, workers may be unknowingly exposed to an unreasonably dangerous condition.
Driver Distraction
It is commonly understood that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous. However very few people understand the cognitive processing issues that make the attempted multitasking so dangerous. People often suggest that talking on a cell phone is similar to talking with in-vehicle passengers, or adjusting the radio. And aren’t children an even bigger distraction? These are common opinions and questions, but they all are based on a poor foundation of the problem.
Drivers must concurrently perform several tasks to safely operate a motor vehicle, including speed regulation, lane-keeping, checking mirrors and other locations for potential conflicts, and responding to unexpected events. When drivers engage in other secondary tasks, such as cell phone use, additional time is required for them to detect and respond to roadway hazards. This delay in reaction time decreases the likelihood that drivers will be able to appropriately respond to an unexpected hazard in time to avoid a collision. Many other factors are considered when evaluating the ability of a driver to detect a roadway hazard, including the driver’s expectation of the hazard, the available illumination, and the size, color and contrast of the object. In addition, our research has demonstrated how the cognitive distractions create an “inattention blindness”, which inhibits drivers from detecting and responding to roadway hazards at all, even when other factors are adequate for detection.