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In recent years the boundaries between active and passive safety blurred more and more. Passive safety in the traditional term includes all safety aspects to prevent occupants to be injured or at least injury severity should be reduced. Passive Safety starts with the collision (first vehicle contact) and ends with rescue (open vehicle doors). Within this phase the occupant has to be protected by the passenger compartment whereby no intrusion should occur. Active safety on the other side was developed to interact prior to the collision whereby the goal is to prevent accidents. The extensive interaction between active and passive safety led to the terminologies "Primary" and "Secondary" safety whereas the expression Integrated Safety Concept was generated. Within this study the most well documented single vehicle accidents with cars not equipped with ESP were identified from the PENDANT database and reconstructed. Additional cases were found in the database ZEDATU of TU Graz. In comparison each case was simulated with the assumption that the cars were equipped with ESP. The differences regarding accident avoidance or crash severity as well as reduction of injury risk were analysed.
Due to recent years accident avoidance and crashworthiness on Austrian roads were mostly developed on national statistics and on-scene investigation respectively. Identification and elimination of black spots were main targets. In fact many fatal accidents do not occur on such black spots and black-spot investigation has reached a limit. New methods are required and therefore the Austrian Road Safety Programme was introduced by the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. The primary objective is the reduction of fatalities and severe injuries. Graz University of Technology initiated the project ZEDATU (Zentrale Datenbank tödlicher Unfälle) with the goal to identify similarities in different accident configurations. A matrix was established which categorizes risk and key factors of participating parties. Based on this information countermeasures were worked out.
76 severe traffic accidents had been investigated in depth in an ongoing Volkswagen-Tongji University joint accident research project in JiaDing district, Shanghai, PR China since June 2005. With a methodology similar to German accident research units in Dresden and Hannover, a research team proceeds to the scene immediately after the incident to investigate and collect various data on environment, accident occurrence, vehicle state and deformations as well as injuries. The data combined with the results of accident reconstruction will be stored in a database for further statistical and casuistic analysis. The first outcome of the project supports the hypothesis that a main causation for the large number of traffic accidents in China is the lacking of risk awareness in Chinese driver behaviour. Low seat-belt use and the high proportion of vulnerable and poorly protected two-wheelers in traffic are reasons for the high injury and fatality rate in China. The research work shows that accident research in China is feasible and able to give support to tackle one of the urging problems in Chinese development.
Schwere Brandunfälle in einigen Straßentunneln der Alpenländer in den Jahren 1999 und 2001 waren mit ein Auslöser für eine weitere Verbesserung der Sicherheit in Straßentunneln. Normative Ergebnisse diesbezüglich geführter Diskussionen mündeten europaweit in der "Richtlinie des Europäischen Parlamentes und des Rates über Mindestanforderungen für die Sicherheit von Tunneln im transeuropäischen Straßennetz" (2004/54/EG) (EG-Tunnelrichtlinie). Vorgaben der EG-Tunnelrichtlinie wurden national in den "Richtlinien für die Ausstattung und den Betrieb von Straßentunneln" (RABT), Ausgabe 2006, umgesetzt. Ein möglichst einheitlicher Standard insbesondere bei den Sicherheitseinrichtungen, wird im Normalfall durch einen in den Regelwerken fest umrissenen und vorgegebenen Ausstattungsumfang erreicht. In besonderen Fällen ist jedoch die Notwendigkeit und der Umfang eines über dem Normalfall liegenden Ausstattungsniveaus mit ergänzenden Verfahren zu ermitteln. Hierfür, sowie zur Überprüfung der Wirksamkeit einzelner Sicherheitsmaßnahmen, werden Nachweise mittels Risikoanalysen gefordert. Weder die EG-Tunnelrichtlinie noch die RABT 2006 differenzieren jedoch zwischen unterschiedlichen "Arten" von Risikoanalysen, entweder zur Ermittlung der Tunnelausstattung bei "Tunneln mit besonderer Charakteristik" oder bei der Zulassung von Gefahrgut. Andererseits sehen beide Regelwerke den Einsatz von Ausstattungselementen auch für einen sicheren Transport von Gefahrgütern durch Straßentunnel vor. Auf der Basis bestehender normativer und methodischer Vorgaben aus Regelwerken und Richtlinien sowie von Methoden, Ansätzen und Modellen, wird ein mögliches Vorgehen für eine risikoanalytische Untersuchung von Straßentunneln dargestellt. Es basiert auf einem risikoorientierten Ansatz. mit den Einzelschritten Risikoanalyse, Risikobewertung und Maßnahmenplanung/-beurteilung. Bei der Risikoanalyse werden mögliche Ereignisse und deren Abläufe bestimmt. Die Risikoanalyse versucht vereinfacht die Frage zu beantworten: "Was kann wie oft passieren und was sind die Folgen?" Die Risikoanalyse gibt Auskunft über die Höhe der Risiken. In der sich anschließenden Risikobewertung wird die Entscheidung getroffen, ob und welche Risikominimierungen vorgenommen werden müssen. Hier wird die Frage versucht zu klären: "Was darf wie oft passieren?". Es wird letztlich die Akzeptanz der ermittelten Risiken bestimmt. Die Maßnahmenplanung/-beurteilung umfasst die Ermittlung und Beurteilung risikomindernder Maßnahmen auch im Zusammenhang mit den hierbei entstehenden Kosten. Beantwortet werden soll die Frage: "Welche Maßnahmen müssen für eine ausreichende Sicherheit des Systems getroffen werden?" Für die innerhalb einer risikobezogenen Untersuchung abzuarbeitenden vorgenannten Schritte Risikoanalyse, Risikobewertung und Maßnahmenplanung/-beurteilung steht eine große Bandbreite qualitativer und quantitativer Methoden bzw. Modelle zur Verfügung. Die im Bericht vorgenommene Darstellung der in einzelnen Ländern durchgeführten Praxis zeigt auf, dass eine Kombination unterschiedlicher Methoden bzw. Modelle verwendet wird. Einschränkungen bei der praktischen Anwendung ergeben sich durch die noch schmale Datenbasis bei Ereignis- und Versagenshäufigkeiten betriebstechnischer Ausstattungselemente oder verkehrlicher Störfälle. Die weitere Erhebung und Auswertung betrieblicher und verkehrlicher Störfälle in Tunneln ist daher anzustreben. Eine Häufigkeits- /Ausmaßermittlung und eine darauf fußende Risikoberechnung ist derzeit für den Bereich Straßentunnel noch mit Unsicherheiten behaftet, die bei der Interpretation der aus einer quantitativen risikobezogenen Ausarbeitung gewonnenen Ergebnisse einbezogen werden müssen. Bei der Bewertung von Maßnahmen sind neben ihrer risikomindernden Wirkung auch die mit ihrer Realisierung bzw. ihrem Betrieb verbundenen Kosten abzuschätzen. Als Realisierungskriterium gilt einerseits ein geringeres Verhältnis von Kosten und jeweiliger Risikominderung einer Alternativ-Maßnahme gegenüber der Ausgangsmaßnahme, andererseits eine Kostenobergrenze in Bezug auf eine anzustrebende Risikominderung. Hinsichtlich der Risikobewertung sind weitere Untersuchungen, Diskussionen und Erfahrungswerte erforderlich, um zukünftig eventuell Akzeptanzbereiche als Entscheidungsgrenzen festlegen zu können. Eine Verbreiterung des Untersuchungsansatzes zur Risikodarstellung sowie die Konzeption eines Verfahrens zur Risikobewertung von Straßentunneln einschließlich Empfehlungen für seine Anwendung ist anzustreben.
The "Seven Steps Method" is an analysis and classification system, which describes the human participation factors and their causes in the temporal sequence (from the perceptibility to concrete action errors) taking into consideration the logical sequence of individual basic functions. By means of the "seven steps" it is possible to describe the relevant human causes of accidents from persons involved in the accident in an economic way with a sufficient degree of exactitude, because the causes can be further differentiated in their value (e.g. diversion as external diversion with regard to impact due to surroundings) and their sub values (e.g. external diversion with regard to impact due to surroundings in the shape of a "capture" of the perception by a prominent object of the traffic environment). Theoretically it is possible that one or more causing moments can be assigned to a person involved in an accident in each of the "seven steps"; however it is also possible to sufficiently clarify the cause in only one level (examples for this are described). In the practice of accident investigation at the site of the accident, the sequence chart is also relevant. With its assistance the questioning of the people involved in an accident can be accomplished in a structured way by assigning a set of questions to each step.
In Germany, in-depth accident investigations are carried out in the Hannover area since 1973. In 1999 a second region was added with surveys in Dresden and the surrounding area. Internationally, the acronym GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) is commonly used for these surveys. Compared to many other countries, the sample sizes of the GIDAS surveys are much larger. The goal is to collect 1.000 accidents involving personal injuries per year and region. Data collection takes place by using a sampling procedure, which can be interpreted as a two-stage process with time intervals as primary units and accidents as secondary units. An important question is, to what extend these samples are representative for the target population from which they are drawn. Analyses show, for example, that accidents with persons killed or seriously injured are overrepresented in the samples compared to accidents with slightly injured persons. This means, that these data are subject to biases due to uncontrolled variation of sample inclusion probability. Therefore, appropriate weighting and expansion methods have to be applied in order to adjust or correct for these biases. The contribution describes the statistical and methodological principles underlying the GIDAS surveys with respect to sampling procedure, data collection and expansion. In addition, some suggestions regarding potential improvements of study design are made from a methodological point of view.
Today, Euro NCAP is a well established rating system for passive car safety. The significance of the ratings must however be evaluated by comparison with national accident data. For this purpose accidents with involvement of two passenger cars have been taken from the German National Road Accident Register (record years 1998 to 2004) to evaluate the results of the NCAP frontal impact test configuration. Injury data from both drivers involved in frontal car to car collisions have been sampled and have been compared, using a "Bradley Terry Model" which is well established in the area of paired comparisons. Confounders " like mass ratio of the cars involved, gender of the driver, etc. " have been accounted for in the statistical model. Applying the Bradley Terry Model to the national accident data the safety ranking from Euro NCAP has been validated (safety level: 1star <2 star <3 star <4 star). Significant safety differences are found between cars of the 1 and 2 star category as compared to cars of the 3 and 4 star category. The impact of the mass ratio was highly significant and most influential. Changing the mass ratio by an amount of 10% will raise the chance for the driver of the heavier car to get better off by about 18%. The impact of driver gender was again highly significant, showing a nearly 2 times lower injury risk for male drivers. With regard to the NCAP rating drivers of a high rated car are more than 2 times more probable (70% chance) to get off less injured in a frontal collision as compared to the driver of a low rated car.
During the last 5 years, the number of cars fitted with side airbags has dramatically increased. They are now standard equipment, even on many smaller cars or less luxurious vehicles. While some side airbags offer thoracic protection alone, there are those that combine thoracic and head protection (of which most deploy from the seat). Other systems employ separate airbags for head and thorax protection, which are designed to be effective noticeably in a crash against a pole. This paper proposes an evaluation of the effectiveness of side airbags in preventing thoracic injuries to passenger car occupants involved in side crashes. First, the target population (who can take benefit of side airbag deployment and in what circumstances) is defined. Side airbags can be especially effective in cases of impacts on the door with intrusion at a certain impact speed. Then, an example case of a side impact with side airbag deployment is given were side airbag deployment is thought to have had a positive effect on injury outcome. A further case is presented where the impact configuration is likely to have reduced the effect of side airbag deployment on injury outcome. Finally, the estimation of side airbag effectiveness (in terms of additional occupant protection brought exclusively by the airbag) is proposed by comparing injury risk sustained by occupants in (more or less) similar cars (fitted or non fitted with airbags) because, during these years, car structure, and side airbag conception have considerably evolved. In-depth accident data from France, the UK and Germany has been collected. Out of 2,035 side impact accident cases available in the databases, we selected 435 occupants of passenger cars (built from 1998 onwards) involved in an injury accident between year 1998 and year 2004 for EES (Energy Equivalent Speed) values between 20km/h and 50km/h. The occupants, belted or not, were sat on the struck side, whatever the obstacle and type of accidents (intersection, loss of control, etc.). For multiple impact crashes, the side impact is assumed to be the more severe one. Passenger cars were fitted with (96) or without (339) side airbags. Most of the potential risk explanatory variables were correctly and reliably reported in the databases (velocity " impact zone " impact angle " occupant characteristics, etc.). The analysis compared injury risks for different levels of EES and different types of side airbags. A logistic regression model was also computed with injury variables (such as thoracic AIS 2+ or AIS 3+) as the dependant variable and other variables (including airbag type and EES) as explanatory injury risk factors. Results revealed statistically non-significant reductions in thoracic AIS 2+ and AIS 3+ injury risk in side airbag equipped cars in the impact violence range selected (odds ratio between 0.84 and 0.98 depending on types of airbags). The results are discussed. The non-significance is assumed to be due to a low number of cases. Statistical analysis for head injuries was not possible due to the low number of accident cases with passenger cars fitted with head airbags in the databases. Moreover, the discrepancies between the data coming from different countries (especially calculation of EES) might have introduced instability in the analysis.
NASS: the glass is half full
(2007)
The National Accident Sampling System (NASS) was born in the late 1970s. It was based on a substantial amount of experience and analysis of what was needed in the United States to understand the safety challenges of our highways. This work also showed how to collect high quality and useful crash data efficiently. Unfortunately, when Ronald Reagan - a President who believed in limited government - was elected, any hope of full funding for NASS was lost. The concept of 75 teams investigating about 18,000 serious crashes in detail annually was never realized. The system got up to 50 teams, then was cut to 36, and finally to 24 teams investigating fewer than a quarter of the originally anticipated number of crashes per year. Despite this, the NASS investigations provide a rich source of data, collected according to a sophisticated statistical sampling system to facilitate detailed national estimates of road casualties on our nation- highways and their causes. In addition, changes have been made in recent years to increase the number of more serious crashes of recent model vehicles to make the results more relevant to improving vehicle safety. A recent, detailed examination of hundreds of rollovers has provided considerable insight into rollover casualties and into what can be done to reduce them. Some of these results will be presented that show the value of the NASS system. Our experience with NASS and the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) suggests a number of improvements that could be made in the United States" crash data systems. It also provides justification for a doubling or tripling of our national expenditures on crash data collection.
Ziel des vorliegenden Forschungsprojekts war die Quantifizierung von staubedingten Reisezeitverlusten im Jahr 2000, die auf infrastrukturbedingte Kapazitätsengpässe einschließlich Verkehrsunfällen und Pannen zurückzuführen sind. Zusammen mit den Ergebnissen der "Quantifizierung staubedingter Reisezeitverluste auf Autobahnen - Störungsursache: Arbeitsstellen" konnte Aufschluss darüber gegeben werden, wie sich die Reisezeitverluste auf Bundesautobahnen anteilsmäßig und in ihrer Größenordnung auf die genannten Störungsursachen aufteilen. Hierzu wurden im ersten Teil der Arbeit methodisch folgende Aspekte behandelt: - Aufbau eines Autobahnnetzmodells; - Modellierung der Verkehrsnachfrage; - Modellierung der Kapazität; - Staumodellierung und Ermittlung der Reisezeitverluste. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wurden die Ergebnisse der Verlustzeitberechnung für das Bezugsjahr 2000 ausführlich dokumentiert. In Sensitivitätsanalysen wurde die Stabilität der Berechnungsergebnisse hinsichtlich der Veränderung einzelner Eingangsdaten bestimmt. Dabei kommt der Modellierung der Verlagerung der Verkehrsnachfrage bei vorhandener Überlastung eine herausragende Bedeutung zu. Ohne Berücksichtigung dieser Verlagerung werden unplausible Werte berechnet, wobei die ermittelten Reisezeitverluste um ein Vielfaches höher als mit Berücksichtigung dieses Effekts liegen. Da zum Ausmaß der Verlagerung bislang keine Untersuchungen vorliegen, ist die Modellierung an dieser Stelle mit großen Unsicherheiten behaftet. In einer Gesamtbetrachtung wurden staubedingte Zeitverluste im Autobahnnetz für das Bezugsjahr 2000 zu insgesamt 234 Millionen Stunden und mit folgenden Anteilen abgeschätzt: Infrastrukturbedingte Engpässe 39%, Unfälle und Nothalte 26%, Arbeitsstellen 35%.