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Enhanced protection of pedestrians and cyclists remains on the focus. Besides infrastructural and behavioral aspects it is necessary to exploit technical solutions placed on motorized vehicles. Accident research needs reliable data as well as national road accident statistics. Changing the view on seriously injured road users is one of the challenges which will substantially contribute to the optimization on future traffic safety. The missing accuracy in the definition of personal injury has a detrimental effect on making cost efficient road safety policy which is not only focused on fatal accidents. The European commission requested that, starting in 2015, all EU member states provide more detailed data on the injury status of road casualties, with special regard to the group of seriously injured. Conventional accident data will always be essential. But to obtain detailed data about driver behavior in real traffic situations further data sources are required. These could be EDR data, data from electronic control units, data from traffic surveys and traffic counting, naturalistic diving studies and field operational tests. Gaining insight into normal as well as critical driver behavior will enable accident researchers to deduct functions estimating the increase or decrease of accident risk associated with certain behaviors or vehicle functions. Also with view to the introduction of highly automated driving functions in the future such data is urgently needed. Computer simulation based tools to estimate the benefits of active safety systems are another step on the way towards the safety assessment of automated driving. It is now the duty of the scientific community to ask the right questions, to develop a methodology and to merge all these data sources into a common framework for the assessment of future traffic safety innovations.
Die von verschiedenen internationalen Organisationen veröffentlichten Daten zur Verkehrssicherheit erweisen sich für die verkehrspolitischen Informationsbedürfnisse und für Zwecke der Unfallforschung häufig nicht als ausreichend. In Absprache mit dem Bundesministerium für Verkehr und der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen wurde daher eine Datenbank internationaler Verkehrs- und Unfalldaten aufgebaut. Berichtet wird über die Vorgehensweise bei der Datenbeschaffung und der Aufschlüsselung der Struktur der gespeicherten Daten. Für die Datenpflege und -fortschreibung ist in einer Quellendatenbank zu jeder abgespeicherten Zahl die zugehörige Quelle verzeichnet. Zum Aufbau der Datenbank wurde das Datenbanksystem SIR mit hierarchischem Aufbau verwendet. Nach dem Erreichen eines hinreichenden Ausbauzustandes soll die Datenbank allen Benutzern des Rechenzentrums BMV/BASt offenstehen.
Internationale Vergleichszahlen legen nahe, dass die Sicherheitspotenziale für die Verkehrsteilnehmergruppe der jungen Fahrerinnen und Fahrer in Deutschland bislang noch nicht optimal ausgeschöpft worden sind. Das hohe Unfallrisiko junger Leute ist das Ergebnis des Einflusses vieler ungünstiger Einzelbedingungen, deren Zusammenwirken das Risiko deutlich potenziert. Eine besondere Rolle spielt hierbei die Unerfahrenheit im Fahren. Aufgrund des multifaktoriellen Bedingungsgefüges des Unfallrisikos junger Fahrerinnen und Fahrer ist diesem Sicherheitsproblem nicht mit einer singulären Maßnahme, sondern nur mit einem Bündel aufeinander abgestimmter Maßnahmen zu begegnen. Die Zukunft der Verkehrssicherheit dieser besonders gefährdeten Zielgruppe wird unter anderem auch davon abhängen, wie gut es gelingen wird, die Kluft zwischen den wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen zum Unfallrisiko junger Fahrerinnen und Fahrer und einer adäquaten Umsetzung in Verkehrssicherheitsmaßnahmen zu schließen.
Das Unfallrisiko junger Fahrer - Bestandsaufnahme und Überlegungen zu wirksamen Gegenmaßnahmen
(2010)
Junge Fahrer - vor allem männlichen Geschlechts - haben ein überdurchschnittlich hohes Unfallrisiko. Der Straßenverkehrsunfall ist Todesursache Nummer eins für Jugendliche. Sie haben unter der Bevölkerung den größten Anteil an verlorenen Lebensjahren. Besonders gefährdet sind Motorradfahrer. An Wochenenden und nachts ist die Unfallwahrscheinlichkeit und -häufigkeit extrem. Auch in Ländern, die hohe Anstrengungen unternehmen, um die Sicherheit im Straßenverkehr zu erhöhen und insgesamt erfolgreich sind, zeigt sich, dass die 18- bis 24-Jährigen häufiger verunfallen als die übrigen Verkehrsteilnehmer und schwerere Folgen davontragen. Die jugendliche Persönlichkeit hat einen prädominanten Einfluss auf das Fahrverhalten. Hintergründe dafür sind die hohe Risikobereitschaft, das Spannungs- und Reizbedürfnis, der Wunsch, Grenzen auszuloten sowie Gruppeneinflüsse oder Renommierverhalten. Daneben spielt allerdings auch die geringe Erfahrung eine Rolle, die zu dreierlei Problemen führen kann: - Neulenker sehen oft die Gefahr nicht, in welcher sie sich befinden, oder - sie unterschätzen die wahrgenommene Gefahr,oder - sie ueberschätzen ihre Fahrkunst und glauben, die Gefahr meistern zu können. In den letzten Jahren wurden in verschiedenen Ländern jedoch auch Fortschritte erzielt. Empfehlenswerte Maßnahmen ergeben sich bei der Ausbildung, wo neue Methoden angewandt werden, eine zweite Phase eingeführt wurde, spezielle Kampagnen konzipiert werden oder fahrzeugtechnische Modifikationen veranlasst wurden. Auch die Nachschulung für junge Lenker, wo nötig, zeitigt Wirkung. Weitere Anstrengungen sind je nach Land oder Region notwendig, insbesondere hinsichtlich der Hauptursachen für schwere Unfälle: Geschwindigkeit, Alkohol und Nicht-Anlegen des Sicherheitsgurtes. Hier lassen sich besondere Maßnahmen für Neulenker vorsehen. Daneben müssen gesellschaftliche Einflüsse, etwa die Wirkung der Automobilwerbung und -berichterstattung auf Jugendliche, berücksichtigt werden.
Es erfolgt eine Aktualisierung und Neufassung des von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) im Jahre 1978 veröffentlichten Berichts "Nachtunfälle - eine Analyse auf der Grundlage der Daten der amtlichen Straßenverkehrsunfallstatistik" (Brühning, Hippchen und Weißbrodt; 1978). Ausgewertet werden die Unfalldaten seit 1970, im Wesentlichen aber die Daten des Jahres 1985. Nachtunfälle haben innerhalb des gesamten Unfallgeschehens eine besondere Bedeutung. Sie sind im Mittel schwerer als Unfälle bei Tage: über 25 % aller Unfälle mit Personenschaden, aber rund 40 % aller Unfälle mit Getöteten ereignen sich nachts. Fußgänger werden zu 48,7 % bei Nachtunfällen getötet, 43,1 % der getöteten Pkw-Insassen sterben bei Nachtunfällen. Das Unfallrisiko ist nachts erheblich größer als bei Tage. Nachts steigt das fahrleistungsbezogene Unfallrisiko der Pkw außerorts (ohne BAB) auf das 1,7-fache, auf BAB auf das 1,5-fache des Risikos bei Tage an. Neben Angaben zur zeitlichen Entwicklung erfolgt zunächst ein Überlick über die wesentlichen Kenngrößen (Art der Verkehrsbeteiligung, Alter und Geschlecht der Fußgänger beziehungsweise Fahrer, Ortslage, Unfallmonat, Wochentag und Uhrzeit, Straßenzustand, Unfalltyp und Unfallursachen) des nächtlichen Unfallgeschehens. Darüberhinaus wird eine eingehende Betrachtung zu ausgewählten Problembereichen auf der Grundlage von Tabellenanalysen sowie multidimensionalen Analysen mittels Logit-Modellen durchgeführt. Im einzelnen handelt es sich um die Problembereiche "Alkohol", ungünstiger Straßenzustand, junge Fahrer von motorisierten Zweirädern, Pkw-Fahrer und Fußgänger. Desweiteren wird auf regionale Unterschiede nach Bundesländern im nächtlichen Unfallgeschehen eingegangen.
Zuletzt wurde das Unfallgeschehen bei Nacht auf Grundlage der amtlichen Verkehrsunfallstatistik des Jahres 1985 analysiert (Forschungsberichte der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, 185, 1988). Die wesentlichen Ergebnisse waren erheblich höhere Unfallraten nachts, ein hoher Pkw-Anteil unter den Unfallbeteiligten, eine maßgebliche Beteiligung von Jungen Fahrern sowie eine starke Bedeutung von Alkoholunfällen. Aufgrund der Entwicklung des Verkehrsgeschehens, der Bevölkerung und deren Mobilitätsbedürfnisse ist parallel zum Unfallgeschehen insgesamt auch bei Nachtunfällen mit erheblichen Veränderungen seit 1985 zu rechnen. So ist seit 1985 (außer bei Fahrrädern) die Gesamtzahl der Unfälle mit Personenschaden sowohl bei Tag als auch bei Nacht gesunken, die Anteile der Nachtunfälle (außer bei Motorrädern) sind jedoch konstant bzw. sogar gestiegen. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurde zunächst die Entwicklung der Anzahl und der Schwere der Nachtunfälle seit 1991 analysiert. Nachfolgend wurden aus der detaillierten Analyse der Unfall- und Beteiligtenstruktur bei Nacht die besonderen Problembereiche des nächtlichen Unfallgeschehens abgeleitet. Grundsätzlich zeigt sich, dass Nachtunfälle besonders folgenschwer sind. So ereigneten sich im Jahre 2002 circa 28 % aller Unfälle mit Personenschaden bei Nacht, wogegen der Anteil der Getöteten bei Nachtunfällen an allen tödlich Verunglückten mit 42 % erheblich höher liegt. Betrachtet man allein die absoluten Unfallzahlen bei Nacht, scheint durch die hohen Unfallzahlen in den Berufsverkehrszeiten die kritische Zeit der Nachtunflle in dieser Zeitspanne zu liegen. Bereits die Differenzierung nach Wochentagen zeigt jedoch in den Wochenendnächten auch hohe Unfallzahlen über die ganze Nacht. Als kritische Zeit des Unfallgeschehens bei Nacht lässt sich somit die Zeit der Kernnacht zwischen 21:00 und 4:00 Uhr eingrenzen, insbesondere in den Nächten von Freitag auf Samstag und von Samstag auf Sonntag. Dies gilt insbesondere für Landstraßen, aber auch für Autobahnen. Als besonders gefährdete Verkehrsteilnehmer zeigten sich in der Untersuchung - wenngleich aus unterschiedlichen Gründen - die jungen Verkehrsteilnehmer zwischen 18 und 34 Jahren sowie die ungeschützten nichtmotorisierten Verkehrsteilnehmer. Als besonders nachttypische Unfallursachen zeigten "Alkohol" und "Gesschwindigkeit" vor allem außerorts einen bestimmenden Einfluss auf das Unfallgeschehen bei Nacht.
Within the COST Action TU1101 the working group WG 1 is dealing with acceptance criteria and problems in helmet use while bicycling concerning conspicuity, thermal stress, ventilation deficits and other potential confounding. To analyze the helmet usage practice of bicyclists in Europe a questionnaire was developed in the scope of working group 1 to collect relevant information by means of a field study. The questionnaire consists of some 66 questions covering the fields of personal data of the cyclist, riding und helmet usage habits, information concerning the helmet model and the sensation of the helmet, as well as information on previous bicycle accidents. A second complementary study is conducted to analyze if the use of a bicycle helmet influences the seating geometry and the posture of cyclists when riding a bicycle and if the if the helmet vertically limits the vision. For this purpose cyclists with and without helmets were photographed in real world situations and relevant geometrical values such as the decline of the torso, the head posture of the upper vertical vision limit due to the helmet were established from the photos. The interim results of the field studies which were conducted in Germany by the Hannover Medical School are presented in this study. Some 227 questionnaires were filled out, of which 67 participants had used a helmet and 42 of the 227 participants have had a bicycle accident before. For the analysis of the riding position and posture of the cyclist over 40 pictures of riders with a helmet and over 240 pictures of riders without a helmet were measured concerning the seating geometry to describe the influence of using a bicycle helmet. Some results in summary: From the riders interviewed with the questionnaire only 11% of the city bike riders and 12% of the mountain bike riders always used the helmet, while 38% of the racing bike riders and 88% of the e-bike-riders always used the helmet. The helmet use seems not to change the sensation of safety of cycling compared to the use of a car. The arguments for not wearing a helmet are mostly stated to be the short distance of a trip, high temperatures or carelessness and waste of time. The reasons for using a helmet are stated to be the feeling of safety and being used to using a helmet. Being a role model for others was also stated to be a reason for helmet use. Concerning the sensation of the helmet 9% of the riders reported problems with the field of vision when using a helmet, 57% saw the problem of sweating too much, and 10% reported headaches or other unpleasant symptoms like pressure on the forehead when using the helmet. The analysis of the seating posture from the pictures taken of cyclists revealed that older cyclists generally have a riding position where the handle bar is higher than the seat (0-° to 10-° incline from seat to handlebar), while younger riders had a higher variance (between -10-° decline and 20-° incline). Further, elderly riders and riders with helmets seem to have a more upright position of the upper body when cycling. The vertical vision limit due to the helmet is determined by the front rim of the helmet (mostly the sun shade). Typical values here range from 0-° (horizontal line from the eye to the sun shade) to 75-° upwards, in which elderly riders tend to have a slightly higher vertical vision limit possibly due to the helmet being worn more towards the face.
Ausgehend von den Unfalldaten der letzten Jahre wird die Bedeutung von Fußgängerunfällen im Unfallgeschehen dargestellt. Betrachtet man die bei Unfällen getöteten Verkehrsteilnehmer, so sind am häufigsten Personen in Kraftfahrzeugen betroffen. Am zweithäufigsten werden, gemäß der Unfallstatistik, Fußgänger getötet. Eine Möglichkeit zur Verbesserung des Schutzes von Fußgängern und anderen sogenannten "ungeschützten Verkehrsteilnehmern" im Falle einer Kollision mit einem Kraftfahrzeug sind Maßnahmen am Fahrzeug. Um die Wirksamkeit derartiger Maßnahmen zu beurteilen, wurde durch das EEVC (European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee) ein Prüfverfahren entwickelt. Es handelt sich dabei um ein Komponentenprüfverfahren, mit dem die Frontstruktur von Fahrzeugen, die bei einer Kollision mit einem Fußgänger hauptsächlich betroffen ist, geprüft wird. Es werden keine den gesamten Menschen repräsentierende Dummies verwendet, stattdessen werden Prüfkörper, die einzelne Körperteile simulieren, eingesetzt. Dieser EEVC Vorschlag wird geschildert. Darüber hinaus wird über Aktivitäten außerhalb des EEVC berichtet, sowie über den aktuellen Stand der Bemühungen der Europäischen Kommission in Bezug auf den Fußgängerschutz, die derzeit, auf Grundlage des Prüfvorschlages des EEVC, einen Vorschlag für eine Europäische Richtlinie erarbeitet.
Crash involvement studies using routine accident and exposure data : a case for case-control designs
(2009)
Fortunately, accident involvement is a rare event: the chance of an individual road user trip to end up in a crash is close to zero. Thus, according to general epidemiological principles one can expect the case-control study design to be especially suitable for quantifying the relative risk (odds ratio) of accident involvement of road users with a certain risk factor as compared to road users that do not have this characteristic. Ideally, of course, the database for such a case-control study should be established by drawing two independent random samples of cases (accidental units) and controls (nonaccidental units), respectively. If, however, special data collection is not an option, it is nevertheless possible to analyze routine accident and exposure data under a case-control design in order to fully exploit the information contained in already existing databases. As a prerequisite, accident and exposure data from different sources are to be combined in a single file of micro or grouped data in a way consistent with the case-control study design. Among other things, the proposed methodological approach offers the possibility to use in-depth data of the GIDAS type also in investigations of active vehicle safety by combining this data with appropriate vehicle trip data collected in mobility surveys.
Active safety systems are aimed at accident prevention, hence the knowledge required for their development is different from that required for passive safety systems aimed at injury prevention. Particularly, knowledge about accident causation is required. When looking at existing accident causation data, it is argued it fails to explain in sufficient detail how and why the accidents occur. Therefore, there is a need for detailed micro-level descriptions of accident causation mechanisms, and also of methodologies suitable for creating such descriptions. One study addressing these needs is the Swedish project FICA (Factors Influencing the Causation of Accidents and Incidents), where an accident investigation methodology suitable for active safety is developed, and in-depth accident investigations following this methodology are carried out on-scene in the area of Gothenburg by a multidisciplinary team. A preliminary aggregated analysis of different cases shows that the methodology developed is adequate for pointing out common contributing factors and devising principal countermeasures.
At the beginning of the year 2000 the European Commission set the goal to halve the number of road deaths till the year 2010. The main focus are passenger car and lorry traffic. A significant reduction of the accident data could be reached in these groups. The advancement of active vehicle safety systems is an important issue of the programme. The safety of the motorcycle traffic has been disregarded till now. Since 1991 the number of killed motorcycle riders per year has been constant. The number of killed passenger car occupants has been more than halved in the same period. This is why initiatives are caused for the increase of the motorcycle safety. A great safety potential is expected for the Antilock Brake System (ABS). ABS for motorcycles is considered from the economic view in this study. A cost-benefit analysis shall clarify whether the economic benefit of ABS for motorcycles is greater than the consumed resources. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis will determine the maximal justifiable consumption in resource for which ABS is worthwhile. After the sensitivity analysis is done a break-even analysis will determine the market price respectively the annual mileage from which on ABS is worthwhile on user level. For this the fair end consumer market price is calculated which the user is ready to pay. For the considered market prices the annual mileage is determined from which on ABS is worthwhile for the user. The considered time horizon for this analysis are the years 2015 and 2020. For each of these years the accident data is forecasted. At this, it is assumed that the frequency of having an accident per million registered motorcycles decreases based on the present trend. Thus, riding motorcycle gets safer. Hence, the accident data in the years 2015 and 2020 is lower than the accident data today. The cost-benefit analysis is done for each year for four scenarios. Two scenarios handle the market penetration. The first one is the trend scenario, the second one is the mandatory equipment from the year 2010 on. The other scenarios describe the effectiveness of ABS. The effectiveness rates are determined by a literature review. The only potential which can be considered due to the available data is the potential due to an avoiding of the downfall just before the real accident happens. According to this the number of accidents will decrease by 2.4 %. The number of fatalities will decrease by 12.1 %. The number of severe injuries decreases by 11.7 %. However, the number of slight injuries increases by 2.1 %. The mentioned effectiveness rates are valid for the scenarios with the high effectiveness. Even these figures underestimate the actual effectiveness because there are only considered the avoided accidents with downfall. The necessary consumption in resources depends on the produced volume. The more ABS systems are produced, the lower are the costs per system. This is due to realised effects of scale and effects out of learning curves. The system costs depend on the penetration rate. In the trend scenario the system costs for ABS are 120 Euro for the year 2015 respectively 105 Euro for the year 2020. In the mandatory scenario the system costs are 115 Euro for the year 2015 respectively 100 Euro for the year 2020. The benefit-cost ratios are all over the critical barrier of 1.0. Thus, ABS is worthwhile on economic level. In the scenarios with high effectiveness the benefit-cost ratios range between 4.6 and 4.9. Thus, the values are even above the barrier of 3.0. The result of the break-even analysis is that ABS is worthwhile on user level. The considered market prices are 400 Euro in 2015 and 300 Euro in 2020. They are clearly below the determined fair end consumer market prices. The fair end consumer price for the year 2015 is 701 Euro respectively 622 Euro for the year 2020. Thus, ABS is worthwhile for motorcycle riders with an annual mileage higher than 2,200 km (year 2015) respectively 1,900 km (year 2020). The annual mileage of a motorcycle rider is 3,900 km on average. Thus, ABS is worthwhile for most of the motorcycle riders. The mentioned results are valid for the high effectiveness scenarios.
The fact that ADAC Air Rescue handles approximately 4,000 road accident missions every year gave rise to set up an accident research programme for which ADAC Air Rescue provides its data. This data is of initial informational quality and will be supplemented by data from the police, experts, fire brigades as well as hospitals and forensic institutes. Although the number of cases is still rather low, certain tendencies can be identified. The causes for most accidents occur when joining or intersecting traffic, followed by speeding in road bends and tailgating. Many accidents involve HGV rear end collisions, often causing serious injuries, considerable damage and technical problems for the rescue operations. With regard to the various impact types, it has become obvious that most of the extremely serious injuries are inflicted during a passenger car side impact. In addition, access to and removal of trapped passengers is becoming more and more complicated, partly due to the increasing use of high-strength materials, and rescue operations tend to be more time consuming.
Because of actual developments and the continuous increase in the field of drive assistant systems, representative and detailed investigations of accident databases are necessary. This lecture describes the possibility to estimate the potential of primary and secondary safety measures by means of a computerized case by case analysis. Single primary or secondary safety measures as well as a combination of both are presented. The method is exemplarily shown for the primary safety measure "Brake Assist" in pedestrian accidents. Regarding accident prevention only the primary safety measure is determined.
Accidents involving two wheels vehicles represent one of the more important types of accidents in Europe. These accidents are usually not easy to reconstruct specially for the analysis of the injuries and its correlation with accident dynamics and evidences. Different methodologies are applied in this work for the reconstruction of two wheeler accidents, especially accident involving motorcycles. From the typologies of road evidences like skid marks, to the use of Pc-Crash and the use of Madymo models, different reconstruction of real accidents are presented. One of the questions that sometimes arise for legal purposes when some type of head injuries arise is if the occupant was wearing or not a helmet. The correlation of head injuries with the use of the helmet is a very important issue, therefore an important legal aspect. One of the key questions for the reconstructions that is difficult to analyze, is if the vehicle occupant, was or not, wearing the helmet. Based on the previously collected information, a generic model of a helmet was developed on CAD 3D, followed by its conversion into finite elements, all in order to perform impact tests using the Madymo software that would help improve the helmet- safety, but that also can be used as a tool in accident reconstruction.
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.
In order to enable foreseeing or comparing the benefit of safety systems or driver assistance systems in Germany, in the United States and in Japan, the traffic accident databases in those three countries are examined. The variables used are culpable party, collision partner, accident type, and injury level and the method to re-classify the databases for comparison are proposed. The result indicates that single passenger car fatality is the most frequent in Germany and in the United States, while passenger car vs. pedestrian is the most frequent fatality scenario in Japan. When the casualty by fatality ratio is focused, the greatest difference is observed in rear-end collisions. The ratio of slight injuries in Japan yields about eighteen times as many as those in Germany, and about eight times as many as those in the United States.
This study aimed at comparing head Wrap Around Distance (WAD) of Vulnerable Road User (VRU) obtained from the German in-depth Accident Database (GIDAS), the China in-depth Accident Database (CIDAS) and the Japanese in-depth Accident Database (ITARDA micro). Cumulative distribution of WAD of pedestrian and cyclist were obtained for each database (AIS2+) showing that WAD of cyclists were larger than the ones of pedestrians. Comparing three regions, the 50%tile WAD of GIDAS was larger than that of both Asian accident databases. Using linear regression that might predict WAD of pedestrians and cyclists from Impact speed and VRU height, WADs were calculated to be 206cm/219cm (Pedestrian/Cyclist) for GIDAS, 170cm/192cm for CIDAS and 211cm/235cm for ITARDA. In addition, this study may be helpful for reconsideration of WAD measurement alignment between accident reconstruction and test procedures.
One goal of the assessment of the crashworthiness of passenger cars is to characterize the potential of injury outcome to occupants of cars involved in an accident. This can be achieved by the help of an index that puts the number of injured occupants of passenger cars in relation to the number of cars involved in an accident. As a consequence, this index decreases with a lower potential of injury and rises with a higher number of injuries while assuming a fixed number of accidents. Another index is introduced that uses an economical weighting of each injury level. The consequential injury costs are calculated using the average economical costs for lightly, severely and fatally injured persons. The calculation of the safety indices is based on an anonymized sample of accident data provided by the Federal Statistical Office. An index of Mercedes passenger car drivers depending on the year of registration between 1991 and 2006 is compared to the index of drivers of cars of other makes within the same range of registration years.
Causation patterns and data collection blind spots for fatal intersection accidents in Norway
(2010)
Norwegian fatal intersection accidents from the years 2005-2007 were analysed to identify any causation patterns among their underlying contributing factors, and also to evaluate whether the data collection and documentation procedures used by the Norwegian in-depth investigation teams produces the information necessary to perform causation pattern analysis. A total of 28 fatal accidents were analysed. Details on crash contributing factors for each driver in each crash were first coded using the Driving Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM), and then aggregated based on whether the driver was going straight or turning. Analysis results indicate that turning drivers to a large extent are faced with perception difficulties and unexpected behaviour from the primary conflict vehicle, while at the same time trying to negotiate a demanding traffic situation. Drivers going straight on the other hand have less perception difficulties. Instead, their main problem is that they largely expect turning drivers to yield. When this assumption is violated, they are either slow to react or do not react at all. Contributing factors often pointed to in literature, e.g. high speed, drugs and/or alcohol and inadequate driver training, played a role in 12 of 28 accidents. While this confirms their prevalence, it also indicates that most drivers end up in these situations due to combinations of less auspicious contributing factors. In terms of data collection and documentation, information on blunt end factors (those more distant in time/space, yet important for the development of events) was more limited than information on sharp end factors (those close in time/space to the crash). A possible explanation is that analysts may view some blunt end factors as event circumstances rather than contributing factors in themselves, and therefore do not report them. There was also an asymmetry in terms of reported obstructions to view due to signposts and vegetation. While frequently reported as contributing for turning drivers, they were rarely reported as contributing for their counterparts in the same accidents. This probably reflects an involuntary focus of the analyst on identifying contributing factors for the driver legally held liable, while less attention is paid to the driver judged not at fault. Since who to blame often is irrelevant from a countermeasure development point of view, this underlying investigator mindset needs addressing to avoid future bias in crash investigation reports.
Causation of traffic accidents with children from the perspective of all involved participants
(2017)
In the year 2014 about 2,800 children between zero and 14 years got injured due to traffic accidents in Austria. More than 50% were taking part in traffic as active road users like cyclists or pedestrians. Within this study 46 real world traffic accidents between vehicles and children as pedestrians were analysed. In 39 cases, car drivers hit the crossing children. In the other cases, the collision opponents were busses, trucks or motorcycles. Most of the children got hit while crossing a road at urban sites. By analysing the traffic accidents from the perspectives of all involved participants, vehicle drivers and injured children, it is possible to identify factors for each participant, which led to the accident and factors that contributed the accident. The main task is to find patterns in the behaviour of crash victims (children and driver) before the collision. One important fact is that in more than 50% of the analysed cases sight obstructions were an important contributing factor for both, the driver and the child. From drivers view situations in which the child moved unexpected into the driven road lane were often found. For the injured child, factors like: no attention to the road traffic or no sufficient traffic observation were found to be relevant. Further it- possible to sensitise children and adults to possible source of critical traffic situations according to the findings of this study.