Behaviors and Causal Explanations of Road-Tunnel Users During a Fire

Abstract

The present study was aimed at describing the behaviors of tunnel users in the event of a road-tunnel fire,and to determine the effect of stress on these behaviors. Another aim was to identify the causal explanationsoffered by tunnel users for fires and for non-evacuation behaviors after a fire alarm is given. Several fire scenarioswere presented to 217 participants, who were asked to predict their likely behavior in the situations described,and to give explanations for the fire's occurrence. The participants' perceived stress level was also measured usinga subscale taken from the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond, & Lovibond, 1995). The resultsshowed that the participants tended to adopt more risky behaviors in situations where traffic was moving freelythan in congested traffic. The users' perceived stress led them to adopt unsafe behaviors, but contrary to Hennessyand Wiesenthal's (1997) results, this relationship was stronger in free-flowing traffic than in a traffic jam. Someof the participants demonstrated a certain behavioral rigidity, tending to adopt identical behaviors regardless ofthe traffic situation. The behaviors stated for a given situation seem to be consistent, but they were not alwayssafety-conscious. And the more serious the fire, the more internal the explanations were. Finally, non-evacuationbehaviors were attributed mainly to internal factors that implicated the concerned individuals. Some suggestionsfor long-term preventive actions based on users' beliefs and representations are proposed