交通安全工程专业英语

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    随着城市交通的不断发展，交通安全已成为人们必须面对解决的新问题。纵观
世界各国交通行业发展与交通安全局势的关系，交通安全与交通行业的科技管理水
平、社会经济发展水平、居民文化素质、出行习惯等密切相关。交通安全存在一个
生命周期，通常经历起步发展阶段一上升恶化阶段一下降好转阶段一稳定阶段四个
时期。欧美各国基本已经进入下降好转阶段或稳定阶段。针对我国目前交通安全形
势，时下我国仍然处于上升恶化阶段，这与我国交通行业整体发展水平和社会经济
水平密切相关，这是事物发展的必然规律，我们必须正确面对。
    2003年10月28日《中华人民共和国道路交通安全法》得以通过，并于2004
年5月1日起施行。《安全法》的颁布对我国交通行业的发展具有划时代的意义，
对实现交通安全的科学、规范、高效管理有着重要意义。
    交通安全工程系列丛书正是在这一历史背景情况下编篡的，将人的交通行为作
为安全研究的基础与切入点，从交通行为学、交通安全工程、交通安全人机工程，
交通安全原理、交通安全管理与运营、运输网络可靠性，以及相关交通安全专业英
语等方面进行系统研究，在大量借鉴参考国外交通安全研究成果的同时，密切结合
我国混行交通特点，充分研究分析交通安全中人、车、环境之间的安全链关系，对
预防交通事故，提高交通安全管理的科学性、高效性具有较好的参考价值。

前  言
    交通安全工程专业英语(Traffic Safety Engineering English)是为了满足高等
院校安全类及交通类专业英语课程教学的需要，根据高等院校培养目标的要求而编
写的。希望通过本书的学习能够帮助读者掌握必要的专业词汇、培养学生专业英语
阅读能力及专业英语文献翻译的初步能力，使英语学习与专业知识有机结合在一
起。使用对象为已完成基础英语课程学习的安全类或交通类本、专科学生和研究
生，也可供有关专业技术人员自学使用。本书在教学安排上可根据实际情况灵活掌
握，选择全部或部分内容进行教学。
    本书题材选自近期国外正式出版物，如专业学术著作、期刊等，选题广泛，涉
及安全原理、安全管理、安全运营、人机安全工程、交通心理、交通行为、事故机
理、事故诊断、事故调查、事故预防、人因分析、人的可靠性以及运输网络可靠性
等诸多方面。在编写中吸取了我国相近学科其他专业英语教材的优点和基础英语教
学的经验。本书在符合专业英语教学需要的同时，试图使读者在有限的篇幅内了解
现代交通安全工程专业技术的主要内容。
    本书共分20个单元，每个单元包括精读课文(Text)、单词词组(words and
Expressions)、练习(Exercises)、阅读材料(Reading Material)、参考译文(In-
terpretation)、词汇表(Vocabulary)及参考文献(References)。
    由于水平所限，加之时间仓促，本书难免存在缺点和错误，恳请读者提出宝贵
的批评意见。

Unit 12 Text
     Human Errors in Road Accidents
     A comprehensive study of road safety (Treat et al. , 1977) found that human
error was the sole cause in 57% of all accidents and was a contributing factor in
over 90%. In contrast, only 2.4% were due solely to mechanical fault and only
4.7% were caused only by environmental factors. Other studies have reported simi-
lar results.
     Why do humans make so many driving errors? The answer to this question lies
in the inherent limitations of human information processing. In sum, humans must
rely on three fallible mental functions: perception, attention and memory.
     HUMAN INFORMATION PROCESSING OVERVIEW
     People driving down a highway are bombarded with a steady flow of informa-
tion. Most of the information is visual input, the road itself, other vehicles, pedes-
trians, signs, the passing scenery, etc. Moreover, the driver may be processing
other information sources such as auditory input (listening to the radio, talking on
a cell phone, carrying on a conversation with another passenger), or internal input
(remembering directions or planning what to make for dinner).
     If the visual information flow is low, there may be enough mental resource to
carry 'on all tasks simultaneously.  But attentional demands may exceed supply
when:
     1. The flow becomes a torrent (driving fast)
     2. The information is low quality (poor visibility)
     3. Resources must be focused on a particular subset of information (a car close
ahead)
     4. The driver's capacity is lowered by age, drugs, alcohol or fatigue.
     There may not be enough mental resource for all tasks. The driver then "at-
tends" only a subset of the available information, which is used to make decisions

and to respond. All other information goes unnoticed or slips from memory.
     In sum, information processing works like this: the information from the visu-
al and possibly auditory environment is detected by the senses ("preattentive
stage") while other information may be recalled from memory. If there is too much
to process, the driver attends an information subset and the rest is ignored ( "atten-
tive stage"). Lastly, the driver makes a decision and possibly a responses based on
the attended information.
     Research has shown that accidents occur for one of three principle reasons.
     The first is perceptual error. Sometimes information was below the threshold
for seeing-the light was too dim, the driver was blinded by glare, or the pedestrian's
clothes had low contrast. In other cases, the driver made a perceptual misjudgment
(a curve's radius or another car's speed or distance).
      The second is that the information was detectable but that the driver failed to
attend/notice because his mental resources were focused elsewhere. Often times, a
driver will claim that s/he did not "see" a plainly visible pedestrian or car. This is
entirely possible because much of our information processing occurs outside of
awareness. Mack and Rock (1998) have amazingly shown that we may be less likely
to perceive an object if we are looking directly at it than if it falls outside the center
of the visual field.  This "inattentional blindness" phenomenon is doubtless the
cause of many accidents.
      Lastly, the driver may correctly process the information but fail to choose the
correct response or make the correct decision yet fail to carry it out ("I meant to hit
the brake, but I hit the gas"),
      DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INFORMATION PROCESSING STAGES
     Preattentive Stage and Attention
      The Figure 12-1 below schematically depicts the two information processing
stages, "preattentive" (or "ambient") and "attentive" (or "focal").
      This preattentive stage has four important properties:
       1. It is automatic and occurs without volition, so we are unaware that we are
doing it.
      2. Information remains in sensory memory for only a small fraction of a sec-
ond. If not penetrating the attention filter, it is then permanently lost.
      3. It only analyzes as are far as basic properties of color, size, location, etc.

4. It b, asa very large capacity. It can process the entire visual field simultane-
ously.
    This last property is criti-
cal, because the vast quantity of
information is too large for sub-
sequent  processing  stages  to
handle.  There needs to be a
mechanism for selecting an in-
formation subset for more de-
tailed analysis. This mechanism
is  called  "attention"  and  is
sometimes depicted as a spotlight that focuses processing on a selected part of the
visual field--it defines an area of 3-D for detailed examination. Attention is usually
viewed as a filter the driver uses to focus his limited mental resources to important
parts of the visual field and to exclude extraneous parts.
     Attentive Stage and Working Memory
     Sensory Information passed through the attention filter resides temporarily in a
processing stage called "working" or short-term memory. Working memory is like a
scratch pad where people collect the information (visual, auditory, knowledge
stored in the permanent long-term memory) needed to interpret sensory input and
to make decisions. Working memory, however, has two severe limits that often
play a role in accidents:
     1. Information remains in working memory for a short time, maybe 30 sec-
onds, if it is not used or refreshed. The driver could refresh working memory.
     2. Older Information may be flushed out at any time by newer input.
     Working memory has very low capacity, so new information may chase out
old. For example, several studies show that recall of road signs is remarkably poor.
The researchers stopped drivers a few hundred yards after a road sign and found
that recall was as low as 18%, although the signs had been seen only seconds be-
fore. Presumably, new information had pushed the signs out of working memory.
Since working memory records all sorts of information, a few words from radio or
cell phone, could also fill it up and cause other objects to be forgotten.