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In the paper it is investigated to what extend one can extrapolate the detailed accident database GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study), with survey area Hanover and Dresden region, to accident behavior in other regions and countries within Europe and how such an extrapolation can be implemented and evaluated. Moreover, it is explored what extent of accident data for the target country is necessary for such an extrapolation and what can be done in situations with sparse and low accident information in a target region. It will be shown that a direct transfer of GIDAS injury outcomes to other regions does not lead to satisfactory results. But based on GIDAS and using statistical decision tree methods, an extrapolation methodology will be presented which allows for an adequate prediction of the distribution of injury severity in severe traffic accidents for European countries. The method consists essentially of a separation of accidents into well-described subgroups of accidents within which the accident severity distribution does not vary much over different regions. In contrast the distribution over the various subgroups of accidents typically is rather different between GIDAS and the target. For the separation into the subgroups meaningful accident parameters (like accident type, traffic environment, type of road etc.) have been selected. The developed methodology is applied to GIDAS data for the years 1999-2012 and is evaluated with police accident data for Sweden (2002 to 2012) and the United Kingdom (2004 to 2010). It is obtained that the extrapolation proposal has good to very good predictive power in the category of severe traffic accidents. Moreover, it is shown that iterative proportional fitting enables the developed extrapolation method to lead to a satisfactory extrapolation of accident outcomes even to target regions with sparse accident information. As an important potential application of the developed methodology the a priori extrapolation of effects of (future) safety systems, the operation of which can only be well assessed on the basis of very detailed GIDAS accident data, is presented. Based on the evaluation of the presented extrapolation method it will be shown that GIDAS very well represents severe accidents, i.e. accidents with at least one severely or fatally injured person involved, for other countries in Europe. The developed extrapolation method reaches its limits in cases for which only very little accident information is available for the target region.
The EVERSAFE project addressed many safety issues for electric vehicles including the crash and post-crash safety. The project reviewed the market shares of full electric and hybrid vehicles, latest road traffic accident data involving severely damaged electric vehicles in Europe, and identified critical scenarios that may be particular for electric vehicles. Also, recent results from international research on the safety of electric vehicles were included in this paper such as results from performed experimental abuse cell and vehicle crash tests (incl. non-standardized tests with the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the BMW i3), from discussions in the UN IG REESS and the GTR EVS as well as guidelines (handling procedures) for fire brigades from Germany, Sweden and the United States of America. Potential hazards that might arise from damaged electric vehicles after severe traffic accidents are an emerging issue for modern vehicles and were summarized from the perspective of different national approaches and discussed from the practical view of fire fighters. Recent rescue guidelines were reviewed and used as the basis for a newly developed rescue procedure. The paper gives recommendations in particular towards fire fighters, but also to vehicle manufacturers and first-aiders.
Topics of the status report are: Road accidents in Germany ; Socio-economic costs due to road traffic accidents in Germany , German Road Safety Programme. Finished projects: Turning Assist Systems for Trucks ; Handbook „Accessibility in long-distance bus transport“ ; EU project PROSPECT ; Intersection assistance (Euro NCAP) ; Personal Light Electric Vehicles (PLEV) ; Automatic Emergency Braking for Heavy Goods Vehicles ; KO-HAF ; AFAS ; SENIORS ; Adoption of UN-GTR9-PH2. Ongoing and planned research: Safety potential and testing of reversing assistants for passengers cars (M1) and LGV´s (N1) ; Study on winter tires ; Automatic Emergency Braking for passenger cars ; Motorcyclist-friendly safety barriers ; Active motorcycle safety ; EU-Project PIONEERS ; Friction prediction ; Bus safety: smoke gas toxicity ; HMI aspects on Camera-Monitor-Systems ; Activities with regard to UN R 22 and helmets for S-Pedelecs ; Seriously injured road accident casualties ; UNECE IWG on Deployable Pedestrian Protection Systems (Active bonnets) ; GIDAS – new requirements to address new vehicle technology ; Human Body Modelling ; Child Safety at the UNECE with regard to R 129 ; Development of requirements on automated driving functions for vehicle regulations ; EU-Project L3-Pilot ; Development of evaluation methods for driver interaction with assistance and automation (national research and Euro NCAP) ; EU-Project OSCCAR ; PEGASUS ; Development of basic scenarios for the description of control-relevant requirements for continuous automated vehicle guidance ; EU project HEADSTART ; C-Roads Germany ; Practical Test for the Quality of Congestion-Tail Information ; Research program road safety.
Cycling and designing for cyclist in Germany: an overview of road safety, research and guidelines
(2016)
Cycling is considered a social, eco-friendly, pollution-free, low noise and healthy activity and mode of transportation. There are currently around 67 million bicycles in Germany. This number is expected to increase in the near future with greater use of electromotive assisted bicycles. Regarding the expected increase, there should be additional attention given to road traffic accidents involving cyclists. In 2014, 396 cyclists were killed in road accidents in Germany, which is 12 % of all road fatalities. Also in 2014, Germany reported over 78,000 injuries to cyclists. The majority of the fatalities (about 58 %) and 83 % of the serious injuries to cyclists occurred in urban areas. This paper will examine three aspects concerning cyclists. First, the paper will show the main current developments, for example the National Cycling Plan 2020, the effects of the road safety programme and provide an analysis of the German national accident statistics. Second, the paper will give an overview of the regulations, guidelines for road traffic and designing of cycling facilities. Lastly, this study will detail the current and completed research in Germany addressing cyclist. For example, the paper will discuss the topic "Accidents between Turning-off Trucks and Cyclists" Accidents between right turning trucks and straight riding cyclists often show massive consequences. Accident severity is much higher than in other accidents. The situation is critical especially due to the fact that, in spite of the six mirrors that are mandatory for ensuring a minimum field of sight for the truck drivers, cyclists in some situations cannot be seen or are not seen by the driver. Either the cyclist is overlooked or is in a blind spot area that results from the turning manoeuvre of the truck. At present driver assistance systems are discussed that can support the driver in the turning situation by giving a warning when cyclists are riding parallel to the truck just before or in the turning manoeuvre. The paper will describe the requirements for turning assist systems for trucks. The outcome of the study is an overview of the accident situation between right turning trucks and straight driving cyclists in Germany as well as a corresponding test procedure for driver assistance systems. Below are several other projects which will be investigated, too: Accident Risk and Acceptance of Traffic-Rules by Cyclists ; Safety Improvement in Terms of Using Bicycle Paths in the Opposite Direction ; Cycling in Mixed-Traffic ; Observation of Pedal Electric Cycles Riders to Identify Safety Concerns. These three aspects will provide the current situation on the topic of cyclist safety in Germany.
The field of safety in road tunnels has always been an important issue for operators, owners and the responsible authorities. After the tunnel accidents in 1999 the subject gained however in importance. On European level the Directive 2004/54 EC on "Minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans European Road network" has been published. This guideline has to be implemented into national law by all Member States. According to the guideline all Member States of the European Community shall develop a methodology for risk analyses to be applied in certain cases. For Germany, a standardized methodology for a probabilistic quantitative risk assessment has been worked out.
The Federal Highway Network of Germany represents considerable fixed assets. Construction and maintenance activities not only require a high budget, but also influence the traffic infrastructure and, thus, the economy and society as a whole. The present safety of the network has to be ensured under consideration of environmental aspects. At the same time the network owner has to make sure that the civil works are carried out in the most efficient way. Considering the fact that financial resources are restricted, the costs have to be spent in a way to obtain the greatest possible benefit. This task is supported by the application of a comprehensive Asset Management, which is subdivided into operational and controlling tasks respectively. The paper describes the current management procedures.
Germany's road infrastructure grew over centuries to become the arteries and lifelines of our society. The present safety of the infrastructure has to be ensured under consideration of environmental aspects. At the same time the owner has to make sure that the maintenance activities are carried out in the most efficient way. Considering the fact that financial resources are restricted, maintenance costs have to be spent in a way to obtain the greatest possible benefit. In the case of bridges, which are one of the most important parts of the road infrastructure in Germany, this task is supported by the application of a bridge management system (BMS). The existing German BMS contains assessment and optimization procedures on object and network level and is the basis for advancements to meet future demands. Developments concern life cycle and quality-oriented, holistically optimized procedures. Reasonable infrastructure management will contribute to meeting efficiency and sustainability objectives and to achieving interoperability. Here holistic network infrastructure management methods are required. There is a strong need for management solutions during the whole service life of a structure. The definition of criteria for evaluation of the relevance of failure mechanisms, including acceptance thresholds, requires the availability of relevant data for management procedure. Tools for innovative investigation methods and an effective data management will help in meeting the requirements. Relevant fields of research are improved maintenance strategies to meet future demands concerning heavy goods traffic, application and further development of nondestructive testing methods for efficient and sustainable management structures, and the improvement of analytic management tools to meet future demands.
In 2011 399 cyclists died in road accidents in Germany and another 76.351 cyclists have been injured. Since 2000 the number of injured or fatally injured cyclists remained on the same high level. Cyclists form 19% of all casualties in German road traffic, although the modal split rate of this transport mode in 2008 was only 10% of trips and resp. 3% of kilometres per day. The high proportion of fatally and seriously injured shows the high vulnerability of cyclists. The demographic shift towards an older population in Germany and the governmental recommendation of increased bicycle use as an ecological, economical and healthy alternative to other modes of transport lead to the assumption that bicycle use especially of elderly people will increase. Based on these facts about the German cyclists' situation a representative survey of 2.000 cyclists was conducted. Results display use patterns and accident involvement on a descriptive level. Overall 7.7% of cyclists report to have been involved in at least one road traffic accident within the last three years. The performed path model analysis reveals an acceptable model fit. Though the explained variance of accident involvement of the applied psychological factors was low, significant relations between several of these factors and especially risky behaviour could be found.
Rural roads (highways) in Germany have to provide both high road safety and an appropriate level of service in accordance with their function in the road network. Single carriageway rural roads often underperform these expectations. An analysis of severe accidents on rural roads found two main contributing factors. First, high or inappropriate speed leads to accidents caused by the loss of control of the vehicle. Second, unsafe passing manoeuvres related to a misjudgement of sight distance, speed of oncoming vehicles or a misjudgement of the driver vehicle's acceleration capability. On the five roads where unsafe passing manoeuvres were a main contributing factor to accident occurrence, single short passing lanes (600 m to 1.2 km) were built to provide safe passing. On the remaining two-lane sections passing was prohibited by road signs and road marking. This paper investigates the effect of this design change on the accident situation and on traffic flow. The research project is based on a before/after comparison of traffic and accident data. Traffic volume, vehicle types and their velocities as well as the time gaps between the vehicles were recorded at different cross-sections. The result shows a significant improvement in road safety. This improvement was especially noted for severe head-on crashes, which were reduced to almost zero. The analysis of traffic flow on these roads pointed out that the chosen lengths of passing lanes were sufficient for safe passing and thereby reduced the need for dangerous driving behaviour. The recommendations of this research were fundamental for the determination of the design parameters of the second highest design class (EKL 2) in the new German Rural Road Design Guideline (RAL) published in spring 2013.
In Germany, courses for the restoration of the fitness to drive after licence revocation are provided for different offender groups (alcohol, drug and demerit point offenders). Providers of these courses are by law required to prove the effectiveness of the applied course programs. For the evaluation of effectiveness, the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) established specific "Reference Values" in 2002. The objective of the study at hand was to collect valid data in order to renew the old-established Reference Values from 2002. Additionally, data collection aimed at initializing Reference Values for drug offender programs. Over 66,000 drivers were analysed regarding their traffic probation in the three years after licence reinstatement. Offenders were assigned to an offender group (alcohol, drugs and demerit point offenders) based on the reason for prior licence revocation. Different indicators were used as criteria for re-offending: new alcohol or drug records, culpable accident involvement and repeated licence revocation. For each of the offender groups, frequency distributions regarding these indicators were calculated. Frequencies of recidivism are highest for the group of demerit point offenders. Compared to the Reference Values of this group from 2002, frequencies of re-offending increased. Conversely, re-offence frequencies of alcohol offenders are halved compared to the data from 2001. The analysis of the re-offence frequencies of drug offenders reveals an equal amount of re-offenders as in the alcohol offender group. The collected data serve as a good base for renewal of the old-established Reference Values and may be applicable as comparative data for future evaluations The results reveal significant differences between recent data and earlier studies. These may occur due to improvements of the applied programmes, but also due to situational changes, e.g. increased enforcement levels and expansion of the catalogue of offenses which lead to demerit points.