John Adams of University College London refers to Wilde's ideas to argue that rather than making us safer, seat belts and motorcycle helmets have made people drive more dangerously. In an article in the journal Safety Science, published in 1994, Adams argues: "Might you drive a little bit more carefully if you were deprived of the protection of your seat belt? Might you brake slightly more gently or corner a wee bit more slowly if your children were not safely secured in the back seat?" Adams supports his argument with statistics. Between 1988 and 1990 "there was an increase of almost 10% in the numbers of children killed in rear seats". In 1989 it became compulsory for children aged 14 and under to wear seat belts in the UK.
Swedish road users took unusually cautious adjustment actions, which in turn caused an unusual dip in the accident rate
Although it is important to be aware of unintended consequences when introducing any change to the workplace, and to consider risk compensation as part of the risk assessment of human behaviour, perhaps it is time to put the term risk homeostasis to rest. Many studies have shown that safety benefits are rarely completely cancelled out by overconfidence in new safety measures. Making people more aware of their need to maintain a task-capability gap could be a more useful approach.
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