Hi,
Welcome to topic 3 for 624EHS - Contemporary Issues in Equine Science.
This topic is all about horses on the road. You are required to contribute to this blog as part of your CW3 assessment. You have from now until 5 pm on Friday 20th of January 2023 to contribute to this blog, to debate the issues surrounding the welfare of road users. Ensure you can also evidence your opinions and remember that you are also required to submit a reference list (word document emailed to module leader) by 5 pm on Monday 20th of January 2023. You will be graded on the quality and quantity of both your blog contributions and your reference list. Remember, the point of this is to debate the issues, so you should be replying to other posts as well as putting your ideas across. I will be keeping an eye on the blog, but if you have any issues, you should email me. Please remember to register your name with your comments so that I know who has contributed with which comment.
Rosa
Road safety for users, amongst which equestrins and horses, has always been a major topic in traffic safety with the aim of improving rules and regulations in order to avoid accidents (Cavadas et al., 2020).
ReplyDeleteHorses and riders have been identified as vulnerable road users in different countries (Scofield et al., 2019): in studies such as the one conducted by Thompson and Matthews (2015), in Australia, around one hundred thousand horse, riders and handlers are at risk of an accident or near-miss whilst riding their horse on Australian roads per year, and such results are rate similar to the 60% reported for riders in the UK. Contributing factors to near misses and accidents identified were speed, proximity, low visibility, low conspicuity and mutual misunderstanding of hand signals and road rules by different road users.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIn response to this, the paper by Thompson and Matthews (2015) has many limitations, the main one being the survey was biased to southern Americans and their experiences. Being a survey, there will always be a bias due to the respondents sharing opinions and maybe incorrectly responding due to answering the way they think they should rather than the truth. This survey was also distributed solely online so those without access to the internet or social media had no choice to participate as they would be unable to access the questionnaire (Thompson and Matthews, 2015).
DeleteAnother limitation for this study is the fact they only allowed 13 days for the questionnaire to be completed. This is a short period of time and answers may be rushed. There were 147 respondents to the questionnaire however they were all from around a similar area and all that had access to social media and online.
Further research will need to be completed to distinguish between a near miss and an actual accident, and collect demographic data including age, gender, riding experience. This future data should be collected in future research with a more representative sample size (Thompson and Matthews, 2015).
There are 1.8 million regular horse riders in the UK according to the British Horse Society (BHS). Statistics from 01/01/2021 – 31/12/2021 are that 2943 road incidents involving horses have been reported to the BHS, 66 horses have died and 129 have been injured, 126 people have been injured due to road incidents and 13% of riders were victims of road rage or abuse (BHS Dead slow 2021).
ReplyDeleteAlthough results are dependent upon people reporting incident occurrence they may therefore be unrepresentative and potentially incident occurrence is higher than that recorded.
There is reason to suppose that riders are not likely to report an incident to the BHS as they may feel that it wouldn’t make a difference to their individual case (Pollard and Furtado, 2021).
There is a need to find ways to reduce injury, fatality rates and risk to horses and riders when using the road, and to accurately record all incident occurrence which will help in finding ways to reduce the risk.
In the study by Pollard and Grewar (2020) aimed to describe horse-related road incidents (n = 4107) reported to the British Horse Society (2010–2020) and to identify factors associated with higher odds of collisions with another vehicle and horse fatalities. Drivers passed the horse too closely in 84.2% of incidents, road rage in 40.3% of cases and speeding was reported in 40.1% of incidents; close passing distance alone or in combination with speeding was associated with higher collision odds, leading to higher horse deaths which in turn is linked to severe or fatal injury to the rider.
DeleteRunning parallels with this comment, Pollard and Grewar (2020) found that close passing distance, alone or when combined with speeding, contributed significantly to collisions while speeding alone contributed significantly to horse deaths. They also found that wearing high visibility clothing reduced the risk of having a collision. Horse death caused by road accidents were almost 12 times as likely to result in severe, fatal injury to the rider or handler (Pollard and Grewar, 2020).
DeleteDriver behaviour of how to pass horses safely on the roads needs further improvement and basic horse knowledge should be spread to non-horse drivers, which will aim to help reduce the risk of collisions and horse and human fatalities.
Limitations to this study by Pollard and Grewar (2020) include the fact that the incident reports are all self-reported and it may be likely that respondents discuss only a proportion of accidents and near-misses. There is a potential bias in reporting, with more serious incidents more likely to be reported or individuals’ awareness of the incident and their personal motivation influences whether an incident is reported. Additionally, many observations are subjective, specifically when relating to vehicle speed, passing distance and injury severity and all of the data and received information may not be 100% accurate (Pollard and Grewar, 2020).
DeleteIt has been noted that a large number of drivers had good intentions on passing wide and slow (Respectfully), however either cut in too soon or accelerating afterwards to quick, and therefore spoking the equine causing injury (Chapman and Musselwhite, 2011). This therefore highlights a lack of knowledge in the general public, the need for better education
DeletePollard and Grewar (2022) carried out a study with the aim collate information in relation to human injuries resulting from interactions between ridden horses and other road users on public roads in Great Britain, and to identify factors associated with severe to fatal injuries. Data collection from police recorded road incident data involving ridden horses between 2010–2019. Out of 1,187 road users injured, 81.4% were female horse riders, and 25.2% were in the 0–20 year age category. Horse riders represented 238/267 of serious injuries and 17/18 fatalities. Vehicle types involved in incidents where horse riders were seriously/fatally injured were mostly cars 53.4%, and vans/light goods vehicles 9.8%. Horse riders, cyclists, and motorcyclists had higher odds of severe/fatal injury compared to car occupants. Severe/fatal injuries were more likely on roads with 60–70 mph speed limits versus 20–30 mph roads, while odds of severe/fatal injury increased with increasing road user age (Pollard and Grewar, 2022).
ReplyDeleteRecommendations would be an aim in reductions in speed limits on rural roads which would help reduce the risk of serious/fatal injuries.
DeleteThe data present is only a proportion of true injury incidents for one subset of equestrians. Additionally, rate-based casualty estimates (based on time spent on the road or distance traveled) for equestrians are currently lacking, making it difficult to fully understand the risk faced by equestrians while using roads and time changing trends. A More robust equestrian incident data recording and reporting would better inform evidence-based initiatives to improve road safety for all road users.
DeleteI would encourage all riders to report incidents to the BHS / Police and then this data can be collated thus giving a more accurate view on actual incident occurrence.
DeleteBETA report that 74% of UK riders are female (BETA, 2019) for this reason it makes sense that findings from Pollard and Grewar’s study shows a higher % of female road related injuries.
DeleteLimitations of the aforementioned studies include, but are not limited to, personal bias as the incidents reported are all self-reported incidents and only rappresent a percentage of all accidents (Miller et al., 2005). Personal bias, subjective observations and an individual's awareness influence the frequency and accuracy with which incidents are reported as more serious incidents also more likely to be reported and the details of the accident such as vehicle speed, passing distance and injury severity (Pollard and Grewar, 2020).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteLimitation to the study by Pollard and Grewar (2022) is the lack of information on road conditions (asphalt conditions not weather conditions impacting road conditions) and whether the riders were wearing hi-vis equipment which, as shown in others studies, has an impact on reducing road incidents for all vulnerable road users (Thompson and Matthews, 2015; Shoji and Lovegrove, 2019). Furthermore, the width of the roads might be an incident factor (Pokorny et al., 2020) which is not always taken into consideration in studies as it might increase the probability of drivers passing horses too closely.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteFrom personal experience, the lack on countryside roads of mirrors to facilitate seeing around a blind bend, might also be an influencing factor in collisions on the roads, as horse riders or handlers have no way to make their presence known.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeletePollard and Grewar (2022), found that half of the incidents involving ridden horses did not result in physical contact or impact between the ridden horse and the vehicle. Where impact did occur, it occurred more frequently on the off-side or rear end of the horse. However, rear and front impacts were more likely to result in severe or fatal injury compared to off-side impacts. Interestingly, the odds of severe or fatal injury were also almost doubled for non impact incidents compared to off-side impacts (Pollard and Grewar, 2022). This is important to understand; lack of a collision in equestrian incidents does not equate to lack of injury even when another road user is involved.
DeleteHorses react in a 'flight or fight' instinct to anything they deem as 'scary', on the road examples may be; noisy motorbikes, trailers, unexpected silent push-bike, fast moving vehicles etc. They may react by bolting or kicking out to protect themselves, which ends up being dangerous for the horse, rider and everything around them. Therefore, helping non-equestrians understand simple horse behaviour would help put the risk faced by equestrians on roads into perspective (Pollard and Grewar, 2022).
A ‘spooked horse’ was the main cause and mechanism of injury in 27 out of 78 (35%) of the most seriously injured patients involved in horse related incidents in Canada (Ball et al., 2007).
DeletePollard and Furtado (2021) also highlighted that due to the increase of injury risk to riders and equines this largely impacts riders decision to use the roads. This could therefore have the opposite effect because if the amount of horses and riders is reduced then drivers will not be able to learn how to best to drive around them
DeleteExercising horses with hacking may consist of some road work dependent upon accessibility to off road routes; there becomes an issue for riders with regards to access and, there can be limited access to off road hacking and the use of public off-road routes which are restricted in England and Wales. Designated routes only for horse use meaning only a small proportion of the existing public off-road network is available to equestrians in contrast to pedestrians and cyclists (Rights of way and accessing land, 2022).
ReplyDeletePollard and Furtado (2021) carried out a study whereby over 6000 respondents completed the survey and 84% of riders said they used the roads to ride on at least once a week; using roads within the proximity of off road routes, thus using the roads to get to and from off road routes, 68% of those riders experienced near misses and 6% had a injury causing incident.
ReplyDeletePollard and Grewar (2020) found that increased risk factors for a road related incident consisted of road rage and speeding which were reported in 40% of incidents and drivers passing too closely in 80% of incidents. With close passing and speeding combined significantly increased risk of collision and speeding increased risk of fatality (Pollard and Grewar, 2020).
Thus driver behaviour and education on how to pass horses safely on UK roads needs further improvement and will help reduce the risk of collisions and horse and human fatalities.
The highway code has made some changes since January 29th 2022; which was brought in to improve safety of walkers, cyclists and horses riders, the changes related to horses are that when road users are passing horses on the road or horse-drawn vehicles there must be at least 2 meters of space. This distance has increased from 1.5 meters to 2 meters. If it is unsafe, they must wait behind and not overtake. When slowing down to pass riders, drivers must slow down to 10mph. previously it was 15mph (Highway Code, 2022).
This is a great step forward to improving safety for horse riders, it is debatable whether drivers will adhere to the new rules or not. There is a need for improvement in drivers knowledge in passing horses and this must be imprinted in driving lessons, driving tests and beyond.
Alongside this, Pollard and Furtado (2021), found that regional differences in road use
Deleteand near-miss experiences coincided with off-road route availability. Road use was associated with the proximity of off-road routes and road using equestrians covered longer distances. Near-misses were associated with increasing frequency of weekly road use and younger equestrians were more likely to use roads and more likely to experience near-misses.
To improve road usage and reduce the injury rates; encouraging road users to be more responsible and teaching them basic equine behaviour would be beneficial. As well as providing better off-road access and inclusion of equestrians in planning and development initiatives, creating safer equestrian spaces, particularly for young people (Pollard and Furtado, 2021).
Limitations to this study by Pollard and Furtado (2021) include; the exercise times and distances reported were just approximations, meaning it is possible that some equestrians either over or under estimate the times and/or distances they reported, creating a bias. Additionally, the availability of off-road riding routes were based on the riders perception and opinions rather than using an accurate map of equine off-road routes in each area. Again, creating a possible bias throughout the study (Pollard and Furtado, 2021).
DeleteFuture research could be completed to back up these results and incorporate the use of maps which present all the off-road riding routes, in order to compare the results and reduce the bias of this study.
Chapman and Musselwhite (2011), confirms that even though road users have best intentions that young drivers can get frustrated by horse riders slowing down their journey and this is where the road rage is introduced and drives become dangerous.
DeleteRiders must make it as safe as possibly for themselves, taking personal responsibility to ensure they can be as safe as possible, the highway codes states that children under the age of 14 must wear a helmet which complies with the Regulations. It must be fastened securely. Other riders should also follow these requirements. These requirements do not apply to a child who is a follower of the Sikh religion while wearing a turban. Other clothing that should be worn is boots or shoes with hard soles and heels, light-coloured or fluorescent clothing in daylight, reflective clothing if you have to ride at night or in poor visibility (The Highway Code, 2015).
ReplyDeleteMany a time I have seen riders out on the roads with no high viz, I have seen them on their phones whilst riding too, they give no acknowledgement to road users that slow down and pass slow. This could enforce an elitist perception and lack of good communication from a rider to thank a driver for passing correctly may well lead to that driver not following the rules next time.
If a horse is being difficult then a hand gesture may not be practical, but a head nod or smile may be sufficient, motorbike riders use the ‘bikers nod’ to thank drivers which is noticed by the motor vehicle driver.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThere is a need to increase awareness about the problems and needs of horse users among the other road users, especially among the drivers, and to increase knowledge related to rules and regulations applying to horse use in traffic for all road user groups: a study by Simsekoglu et al. (2020) showed, with the aid of an online survey, that horse users have more negative attitudes towards the other road users in traffic compared to their attitudes towards the general risks related to horse use in traffic. These findings support the previous research findings showing a close link between traffic safety attitudes and perceived road collision/incident risk among different road user groups, although the level of knowledge especially related to the rules for horses on the road or for the use of walking and cycling lane is quite low. So it can be argued that horse users’ knowledge related to rules and regulations is lower compared to the other road user groups, such as drivers or cyclists.
DeleteWearing high viz is important, it is better to be seen as soon as possible so the driver can take action to avoid any incident, although Scofield et al, 2019 found that wearing a flashing light on helmet and a black and white pattern tabard outperformed fluorescent / reflective tabards in tests, it needs to be considered that the road had a lack of bends so the horse rider combination was visible from both ends, and the tests were carried out during high peak traffic times where by traffic was cutting through from a main road thus heavy build up would reduce traffic speed.
ReplyDeleteWalker et al, 2014 carried out testing on driver responses to cyclists clothing, the clothing varied from a experienced riders dress wear, a vest with ‘novice cyclist’ , a high viz jacket, a safety vest with ‘police’ on it and a vest with the ‘POLITE’ notice on it.
DeleteThe latter is similar to what is available to horse riders to purchase.
They collected 5690 vehicle passes to analyse and the only to have any effect on driver passes was the police vest which discouraged drivers from passing within 1 meter of the cyclist. The other clothing had no effect and 1-2% over overtakes came within 50 cm of the cyclist (Walker et al, 2014). The novice and experience outfits made no difference to the closeness of the driver passes which is a worry, many novice riders and or young horses will wear tabards displaying ‘young horse / novice horses / rider’ but this study would indicate that drivers do not take into account the message when passing. This study suggest that there is little riders can do by altering their appearance to prevent very close overtakes.
However drivers did alter their behaviour when the police outfit was worn, it would be suggested that educational or legal measures are more promising in preventing drivers from passing closely.
There is concern around the ‘POLITE’ clothing, whereby riders could be mistaken for a mounted officer, and a letter published on the BHS website from Assistant Chief Constable Ron Hanson wrote: “These articles have caused concern to the police on the grounds that individuals wearing them are likely to be mistaken for being a police officer due to the design closely resembling police uniform.
“Any item of clothing that has been manufactured to match these characteristics of police uniform is at risk of contravening legislation, namely Section 90 Police Act 1996.”
While it is illegal to impersonate a police officer in the UK and offenders can be jailed for up to six months, it appears no one is on the record as saying that these particular jackets are illegal and should not be worn.
There are a few limitations to this study by Walker et al (2014), being that the researcher collecting data in this study was not blind to the purpose of the study or the condition under test on a given day, their behaviour might have changed and so influenced the motorists under study. This leads to observer and research bias however, it is hardly possible to blind a bicyclist from the outfit they are wearing and it is possible that the rider might have felt more visible or safer in some conditions.
DeleteAnother limitation is that this study could measure only one aspect of the driver's reaction to the outfits; the passing proximity. It is possible that other behaviours might have changed in response to the rider's appearance, such as passing speed, or the tendency to hold back and wait for clear overtaking possibilities. Future studies could be completed to cover these areas (Walker et al., 2014).
It has been stated that a “simple” way of reducing injury and collision and injury is wearing HI-VI (Pollard and Grewar, 2020), however many people still don’t. Therefore this highlights the need for a future study, to inform owners the decrease in likelihood in wearing a HI-Vis to not.
DeleteScofield etal.,(2019) found that some safety equipment that riders and horses wear cause confusion for drivers and cause potential accidents, even though they are sold as a way of preventing collisions
DeleteScofield etal.,(2019) also found that riding at night, and also not seeing combinations was a reason for accidents. This along with the previous comments highlights the need for a way of making horse and rider noticeable to drivers but not a distraction and without causing confusion.
DeleteIn research completed by Scofield etal., (2016) It was found that hi-vis with a coloured horse on were located quicker by drivers compared to those with bold colours on. This highlights the need for safety equipment revision, and alteration due to the lack of equipment available following this scheme.
DeleteHumans routinely miss important information that is ‘right in front of our eyes’, such as failing to see a cyclist in an intersection. In ‘On-the-spot’ interviews, after a collision drivers often insist that, yes, they did look at the location where the pedestrian or motorcyclist was located but, somehow, they just did not ‘see’ the victim (Wolfe et al, 2022). Vehicle drivers often fail to visually scan for vulnerable road users (Kaya et al, 2021)
ReplyDeleteRaising safety awareness of vulnerable road users (VRU) has been shown to increase drivers ability to detect VRU in simulated car driving sessions, Roge et al, 2015 carried out testing on car drivers of two groups, one group watched a safety video prior to taking the simulated test and they were able to detect VRUs at a greater distance and drove safely in zones that were key areas for a high risk of collision with VRUs compared to the group that did not watch the video. Thus the video enhanced the ability to detect VRUs and led to safer driving behaviours (Roge et al, 2015)
DeleteAlthough in the real world, drivers would not normally watch a safety video each time they were to drive, and the impacts of watching the video would wear off in time, thus the drivers returning to their normal driving habits.
DeleteWith UK national speed limits placed on rural country roads being 60mph by default, (however local authorities can set lower speed limit). 60 mph for a country road is only 10 mph less than that set for motorways!
Rural roads account for 66% of all road deaths, and 82% of car occupant deaths in particular, of all road deaths in Britain in 2011, 51% occurred on National Speed Limit rural single carriageway roads (Gov.UK, 2013).
There can be applications to reduce this national speed limit on rural roads to 40 mph where there is substantial development or a considerable number of horses riders, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists VRUs).
This could make a considerable improvement and reduction for horse rider safety especially on the roads used to link off road riding routes.
Speed reduction measures such as cameras have been shown to have significant effects on the reduction in the number of accidents of all severities at speed camera sites. Speed cameras were found to be most effective in reducing accidents up to 200 meters from camera sites (Li et al, 2013).
ReplyDeleteJones et al, (2008) carried out a study to assess the impact of crash and casualty numbers in correspondence to the introduction of mobile speed cameras in the rural county of Norfolk, England. Road traffic accident casualty and crash data were collected for two years before the introduction of cameras and two years subsequently. At the camera sites, crashes decreased by 19% and fatal and serious crashes by 44%. The introduction of cameras appear to have resulted in real and measurable reductions in crash risk in this rural county. Results suggesting the deployment of mobile speed cameras is an effective tool for organizations wishing to reduce road traffic casualties in areas where high crash rates have been associated with excessive vehicle speeds.
With speeding significantly increasing the risk of collision and fatality (Pollard and Grewar, 2020) the reduction in speed could reduce severe injury and fatality rates with interventions addressing speed potentially saving around 347 258 lives globally per year (Vecino-Ortiz et al, 2022). However Gaca and Pogodzinska (2017) found that the introduction of the local speed limits did cause a reduction in average speed, the speed reduction depended strongly on the value of the limit and local circumstances. Despite speed reduction, the share of drivers who did not comply with speed limits was still high; this confirms that the effectiveness of speed management measures is strongly determined by local circumstances.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIn relation with this, Gaca and Pogodzinska (2017), found that speeds on roads with 'mild' traffic calming measures had low effectiveness. A high effectiveness was derived in circumstances when physical speed reduction measures; speed bumps and raised intersections were put in place. Therefore, adding these physical speed reductions may aim to reduce speeds a lot more. However, these measures usually cause only a local decrease in speed and cannot be placed down the faster roads where most incidences occur (Gaca and Pogodzinska, 2017).
DeleteThe BHS have a program that helps reduce the risk of collision for horses and rides and this has been in practice for over 30 years with more recently, being updated for recent and modern developments (Looker and Forgie, 2019). This highlights the steps the equine industry is taking to prevent collision. However apart from the recent law change there is minimal instructions available for drivers in preventing collisions with horse and riders
DeleteAs investigated by Abra et al. (2019), in Brasil, collisions with large mammals are a threat to human safety and represent an economic cost to society. The high costs of these impact for all those involved including the authorities, shows how improving coordination between the laws that relate to animal-vehicle collisions and human safety, better management practices and raising awareness and social change with regard to animals on the roads should ultimately result in a road system with improved human safety, reduced unnatural mortality for both domestic and wild animal species, safe crossing opportunities for wildlife, and reduced monetary costs to society.
ReplyDeleteIn 2017, 78 equestrians were involved in road collisions involving personal injury in Great Britain, with 22 people being seriously injured and 61 being slightly injured. While the absolute numbers of collisions and injuries relating to horse-riding on the road is low, there is a need to more fully understand prevalent collision types. For the five-year period 2013–2017, there were 458 personal injury equestrian collisions reported (Department for Transport, 2018). In the same five year period, the British Horse Society (2016), recorded 1101 incidents via its self-reporting online incident map. This proves collisions are largely under-reported and many near-misses or minor injuries go unknown in databases.
ReplyDeleteTrump and Parkin (2020), completed a survey study on equestrian road collisions. They found, an average of 92 equestrian collisions are recorded each year in the years 2013 to 2017. There were 86 casualties. Eight of which were reported as serious injuries, all female riders, with seven of them being the horse rider. There was a total of 77 casualties who sustained slight injury, 16 (19%) were male, and 48 (64%) were riding the horse. Of the total of 86 people who sustained injury or died, 70% were aged 20–59, 26% were aged 19 or younger, and 5% were aged 60 or older (Trump and Parkin, 2020).
DeleteThe majority of horse collisions, 45 (58%), were on roads with a 60mph speed limit. 25 (34%) occurred on roads with a 30mph speed limit and the remainder on roads with either a 20, 40 or 50mph speed limit. Showing the majority of equine collisons occur on the main, busier roads (Trump and Parkin, 2020).
Limitations to this study may include response bias due to the study being survey based, respondents may have a tendency to respond in a certain way due to thinking its what the researcher wants to hear. While some respondents may be confused by rating scales or ordinal scales, but guess an answer anyway (Trump and Parkin, 2020).
DeleteAnother limitation is that this study was only completed by horse riders in Devon. It is expected that drivers in rural settings may experience horses on the road more frequently and in Devon horse riding on roads is common. There is no evidence to suggest whether Devon drivers are more or less likely to anticipate the presence of horses. So, further research needs to be completed to compare differences between rural and non-rural areas across the U.K to back this study up.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRoad quality is another important aspect in preventing injury risk on the roads. It has been found that dry clean and level roads are less likely to cause equines to slip (Vos and Riemersma, 2006). By preventing equines slipping, in the event of an emergency, could mean that riders can regain control of a situation. Also if these conditions increasing slipping for horses then they will also be better driving conditions.
ReplyDeleteIn a recent study it was found that 33.7% of respondents had very little off road hacking available to them Pollard and Furtado (2021) This indicates that if there were more off-road hacking then collisions could lower due the decrease in horses on the road. This highlights the need for more bridleways and accessible hacking to be researched all over the country and if these bridleways are there then riders need to be made aware of this
ReplyDeleteDifferent authors agree that in order to reduce incidents and avoid severe/fatal injuries to horses, riders and handlers, as well as other road users, alongside reducing speed limits on countryside roads (Warwickshire police, 2022), police and authorities have room for improving the recording equestrian road safety data as currently they have several limitations (Thompson and Matthews, 2015; Upson R., 2019; Pollard and Grewar, 2020; Pollard and Grewar, 2022). Failure to record correctly incidents impacts greatly the ability to form correct counter measures to avoid them in the future.
ReplyDelete