Driver inattention represents one of the leading contributory factors to road crashes. Extended eyes-off-road time indicates reduced visual monitoring of the driving environment, regardless of the task being performed. Delayed response related to reduced visual monitoring of the environment increases the probability of critical incidents occurring in road traffic. While using mobile phones while driving is widely restricted by law, various in-vehicle devices are being operated regularly by drivers, including those not essential for safe vehicle operation. Safe driving requires not only perception and reaction to events ahead but also continuous awareness of the situation behind the vehicle, especially before and during maneuvers, such as turning, overtaking, or lane changing. Off-forward glances, thus, do not necessarily need to be associated with distraction.The main objective of this study is to examine whether necessary off-forward glances (specifically those associated with analysis of the situation behind the vehicle) are comparable in duration to glances associated with in-vehicle activities (e.g., interaction with in-vehicle systems). The results could also contribute to the definition of the most hazardous distracting activities. The results obtained prove that evaluating the situation behind the vehicle does not require glance shifts longer than 2 s, even in a complex driving scenario. In contrast, distracting activities, such as interacting with a vehicle touchscreen and selected modern in-vehicle systems or driving with a navigation system without audio information, generally involve longer off-forward glances than those required for analyzing the situation behind the vehicle, often exceeding 1.2 s.
Air pollution is often perceived as a problem primarily affecting large cities, while health risks in rural areas tend to be underestimated. This study investigates the spatial variability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in order to quantify the influence of residential heating compared with traffic emissions. A large-scale monitoring campaign was conducted across a unique network of 120 sites in the Czech Republic, representing different settlement types from villages to large cities. Each site was sampled repeatedly, resulting in a dataset of 2160 p.m.10 samples. Source identification combined diagnostic ratios of indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and benzo[ghi]perylene with cluster analysis. Health risks were assessed using toxic equivalent factors (TEFs) and inhalation lifetime cancer risk (ILCR). Average benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) concentrations during the heating season (0.92-2.01 ng m-3) were substantially higher than during the warm season (0.05-0.09 ng m-3), confirming the dominant influence of seasonal combustion sources. The results demonstrate that residential heating emissions represent the primary driver of winter PAH pollution and that small municipalities can exhibit BaP concentrations comparable to or exceeding those observed in large cities. Estimated ILCR values ranged from 5.4 × 10-5 to 1.2 × 10-4 depending on the applied TEF scheme. These findings highlight that significant carcinogenic risks may occur even outside densely populated urban areas and emphasise the need for targeted mitigation measures addressing residential heating sources.
EU Directive 2019/1936/EC on road infrastructure safety management introduced a network-wide road safety assessment approach (NWA) to improve the management of road safety across the member states. The methodology combines reactive (crash-based) and proactive (road design-based) analyses. However, its statistical foundation and national-scale application remain limited, particularly in handling statistical uncertainty, low crash frequencies, the integration of heterogeneous data sources and the inability to quantify differences in safety performance. To address these limitations, our study proposes three alternative approaches: the Rate Ratio test, the Bayesian Inference method and the Empirical Bayes method. These approaches were applied to the Czech national dataset of motorways and primary roads comprising 7826 road sections. The beneficial features of the proposed methods have been described. All three methods demonstrated improved performance when compared to the NWA approach. The Rate Ratio test provided formal hypothesis testing and reduced false positives. The Bayesian Inference provided a probabilistic framework, improved reliability for road sections with low crash counts and explicit estimation of the magnitude of safety performance differences. The Empirical Bayes method enabled the identification of the most influential design factors. In conclusion, the proposed methods provide statistically sound and robust alternatives to support road safety management at the national-network level.
This article deals with the analysis of total chromium (Cr) by ICP-MS/MS, as well as soluble Cr3+ and soluble Cr6+, which are commonly found in the PM10 size fraction of airborne aerosols. Chromium speciation analysis was based on the ion-exchange HPLC-ICP-MS/MS method utilising isotopically enriched chromium species standards, providing deeper insight into the chromium balance. Total Cr content showed no difference between winter and autumn, but it was highly dependent on location within the city. Since Cr3+ was the dominant extractable chromium species (representing 87-100%), it primarily mirrored the trends observed for total chromium. However, it should be noted that the soluble Cr species fraction was only 15.4 ± 17.1%. The content of Cr6+ increased especially during the winter period, when more precipitation was recorded and, atypically, higher concentrations of O3 were observed in the air. Conversely, the proportion of Cr3+ increased with rising air pressure and temperature, as well as with the intensity of global radiation and sunshine. From a local perspective, the highest abundance of Cr6+ was observed in Lužánky Park, which is located near heating plants. During the intense heating season, transport was rather a minor source of Cr6+. Finally, the chromium profile was determined in the fourteen different size fractions of PMx within the range of 0.016 - 10 μm. The highest Cr levels were observed in the 0.6, 1.6 and 10 μm size fractions during the winter period, reaching approximately 465 ± 88 pg m-3.
Road traffic is a significant source of platinum group elements (PGEs), which contaminate various environmental compartments along roadways. Platinum group elements released from automotive catalytic converters readily disperse into the surroundings and may pose a hazard, particularly in areas with high traffic intensity. To better understand the mechanisms of PGE action, environmental monitoring should be complemented by laboratory-based toxicity studies using living organisms. In this study, the bioaccumulation and toxicity of Pd, Pt, and their mixtures in Sinapis alba were assessed using acute toxicity tests. Root growth inhibition assays revealed a lower EC50 for Pd (4.75 mg·L–1) than for Pt (5.26 mg·L–1). At Pd and Pt concentrations of 1–10 mg L−1 in the test solutions, up to 6 times more Pt than Pd accumulated in white mustard tissues. Lower accumulated concentrations of Pd than Pt induced comparable inhibitory effects, suggesting higher toxicity of Pd. On the contrary, at low concentrations (500 ng·L–1 and 1000 ng·L–1) corresponding to environmental levels, both elements exhibited similar bioaccumulation behaviour, with bioaccumulation factors up to 100 times higher than for concentrations above 1 mg L−1 and had stimulatory effects on root growth. Both elements were predominantly accumulated in the roots, and their concentrations increased with exposure duration. A comparison of the bioaccumulation of individual PGEs versus their mixtures revealed a statistically significant difference only for Pt, and only at high concentrations.
