Reviewer: Maurice Masliah, Ph.D., President of Headlight Consulting Inc.
I first met Professor Smiley when she taught a graduate course I was taking on human factors. Professor Smiley was unlike the other human factors professors at the University of Toronto who were all full-time academics. True, many of the other professors consulted on the side, but Professor Smiley consulted as her main profession and taught on the side. In the classroom Professor Smiley brought a level of real-world experience in preventing and/or mitigating roadway injuries through roadway design, signage, and markings.
Professor Smiley’s latest book gives the best possible replication of being a student in one of her classes: a large helping of applied research, a solid dose of practical experience, and a sprinkle of humorous stories. Her book is a unique mix of topics usually seen in separate texts. Professor Smiley’s book can serve as an overview text on human factors in road safety suitable for undergraduate or graduate courses, an investigator’s brief on potential contributing human factors to roadway crashes, and as an introductory text to working as an expert witness. The book chapters are case studies of ten real roadway collisions where Professor Smiley was retained as an expert witness to opine on the possible contributing factors which cover pedestrian, vehicle, motorcycle, train, truck, tractor, and work zone collisions. Each case study chapter includes an overview of the collision, her task as an expert witness, the steps she took to investigate the collision, the research basis for the science behind her findings and conclusions, and the identification of potential countermeasures to prevent future collisions. Unlike others working as human factors expert witnesses, Professor Smiley recognizes that it is not her job to say what people should do (a rules of the road explanation) under different circumstances but to explain what people actually do and why their behavior makes sense.
Professor Smiley’s book of Investigating How and Why Motor Vehicle Crashes Occur: To Err is Human is appropriate for anyone looking to learn more or for an introductory book on the human factors behind road user capabilities and limitations as told from a person who always strived to see the world from the road user’s perspective.
