Projects of the Laboratory

  • A survey study conducted by the Laboratory of Health and Road Safety (2004-2007) expanded further on the impact of lifestyle and sleep-related factors on the probability of car crash. The particular study has been funded from joint European and national resources under the scheme of the Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training which is co-financed by the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund and national resources. Under this scheme, the project ARCHIMEDES I was developed and specifically the research project “Enhancement of TEI research teams: “Lifestyle, Risky driving behaviour and traffic accidents”.
  • The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety joined COST 357 (http://archives.cost.eu/action357/ ). COST is an intergovernmental network, which is scientifically fully self-sufficient with 9 scientific COST domain committees formed by outstanding scientists of the European scientific community. From 1.9.2006 up to now the laboratory participates in the WG1 project developed under COST, Action 357 (under the responsibility of the Prof. Otte Dietmar) titled as “Accident Prevention Option with Motorcycle Helmets”, representing Greece.
  • The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety organized the project entitled “Assessing the motives and the barriers of helmet wearing in motorcyclists of Crete”. We are invited to present the results in the 4th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology, Washington DC (31 August – 4 September 2008) (http://www.icttp.com/index.htm ) in the Symposium “Interdisciplinary approaches to motorcyclists’ safety”, organized by Timo Lajunen. Furthermore, in the 4th ICTTP, J.A. Rothengatter has invited us to present in his Symposium Cultural differences in driving and risk perception the results from a recent study entitled “Can the driver emotions affect driving behavior?”
  • The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety represents Greece in Leonardo da Vinci Program, in the project “Towards safer road traffic in Turkey through continuous education and lifelong learning of driving instructors”, which is organised by Middle East Technical University of Ankara (http://www.metu.edu.tr/ ) (2007 – 2010).
  • The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety participates since 2010 in EU project entitled " Understanding and addressing youth sexual coercion and violence as a threat to youth people's sexual health in Europe" (Youth Sexual Violence 2009/12/22), funded by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC). The general objective of the project is to promote sexual health among young people across Europe by strenghtening the knowledge base on youth sexual violence in Europe (and its determinants) and by multidisciplinary and multicountry dialogue, cooperation and mobilization to action. There is ample evidence that youth sexual violence is highly prevalent in many European countries, and that young people's sexual health is strongly endangered by it. At present, an increasingly sexualised youth culture in many countries might be an additional risk factor for perpetration and victimization. In general, sexual violence is accompanied by high costs in terms of expenditures on health, courts and police, as well as losses in terms of educational achievement of productivity of girls in particular and a noted impediment towards gender equity. However, the knowledge base on youth sexual violence is notably limited and ill-harmonised, multicountry and multidisciplinary dialogue are virtually absent, and member states fail to learn from each other and develop shared, joint strategies towards context-sensitive responses to youth sexual violence. Specific strategic objectives of the project are to work towards fulfilling these needs and establish a multicountry network, strengthen the knowledge base, and develop a context-sensitive European Action Plan. The project contributes to the health program by contributing towards an increased knowledge base on (coercive and transgressive) sexual behaviour of young people, and towards tackling youth sexual violence determinants and the promotion of a healthier, i.e. non-violent sexual way of life. 
  • The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety joined, recently, the COST Action TU110(http://www.cost.esf.org/domains _actions/tud/Actions/TU1101). Project name: "Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and usage". Cycling is an excellent sustainable alternative to driving. Cyclists have few safety options, of which a helmet is one. However, there are strong indications that law-mediated increases of helmet usage for cyclists cause confounding factors which temper the positive effect of these helmets on head and brain injury. Furthermore, current helmet design is suboptimal. Since several fields are important to bicycle helmet optimization, a combined effort involving all of these is necessary; so that a given parameter is not optimized at the cost of another. Finally, the attitudes of cyclist towards helmets will be focused upon; providing tools for improving helmet usage. The multidisciplinary approach respects the complex nature of the issue, it is unique in Europe, and will provide more complete information to legislators, manufacturers, end-users, and scientists, ultimately leading to increased safety for cyclists.