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Erhebungen am Unfallort
(1983)
Der Bericht einer Projektgruppe bei der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen beschreibt einleitend das Projekt "Unfallerhebung Hannover (uh)". Weitere Spezialerhebungen aus dem Bereich der empirischen Unfallforschung werden beispielhaft dargestellt und mit der Unfallerhebung Hannover verglichen. Der Vergleich dient der Herausarbeitung spezieller Eigenschaften und Möglichkeiten dieses Projektes und der Beurteilung der Aussagefähigkeit des gewonnenen Datenmaterials. Unter Berücksichtigung bereits vorhandener Daten aus anderen Erhebungen und des Datenbedarfs der Unfallforschung wird die Notwendigkeit von Erhebungen am Unfallort erörtert und alternative Konzepte hierfür entwickelt. Abschließend wird eine neue nutzungsorientierte Konzeption für ein zukünftiges Projekt zur Datengewinnung durch Erhebung am Unfallort vorgeschlagen.
In the context of this study, different data sources for accident research were examined regarding their possible data access and evaluated concerning the individual quality and extent of the data. Analyses of accidents require detailed and comprehensive information in particular concerning vehicle damages, injury patterns and descriptions of the accident sequence. The police documentation supplies the basic accident statistics and is amended in the context of the forensic treatment by further information, e.g. by medical and technical appraisals and witness questionings. As a new approach to the data acquisition for the analysis of fatal traffic accidents, the information was made usable which was collected by the police and by the investigations of the public prosecutor. The best strategy for obtaining reliable, extensive and complete data consists of combining the information from these two sources: the very complete, but elementary statistic data of the Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Statistik (Lower Saxony State Authority of Statistics), based on the police documentation as well as the very extensive accident information resulting from the investigation documentation of the public prosecutor after conclusion of the procedure, the so-called Court Records. Of all 715 fatal traffic accidents, which happened in the year 2003 in the German State of Lower Saxony, 238 cases were selected by means of a statistically coincidental selective procedure based on a statistically representative manner (every third accident). These cases cover the investigation documents of the 11 responsible public prosecutor- offices, which were requested and evaluated while preserving the data security. Of the 238 cases 202 cases were available, which were individually coded and stored in a data base using 160 variables. Thus a data base of a sample of representative data for fatal accidents in Lower Saxony was set up. The data base contains extensive information concerning general accident data (35 variables), concerning road and road surface data (30 variables), concerning vehicle-specific data (68 variables) as well as concerning personal and injury data (27 variables).
From literature well-known analyzes on risks, hazards and causes of accidents of older drivers are amended by the present study in which a comparison of the specific features of accident causes of older car drivers (older than 60 years) and of younger car drivers (under 25 years) is conducted. Mainly the question is pursued if specific errors, mistakes and lapses are predominant in the two different age groups. The analysis system ACAS (Accident Causation Analysis System) used hereby consists of a sequential system of accident causation factors from the human, the technical and the infrastructural field, whereupon for this study the influence of the human features on the accident development in two different age groups is of interest. ACAS is both an accident model and an analysis and classification system, which describes the human participation factors of an accident and their causes in the temporal sequence (from the perceptibility to concrete action errors) taking into consideration the logical sequence of individual basic functions. In five steps (categories) of a logical and temporal sequence the hierarchical system makes human functions and processes as determinants of accident causes identifiable. The methodology specifically focuses on the use in so-called "In-Depth" and "On-Scene" investigation studies. With the help of the system for each accident participant one or more of five hypotheses of human cause factors are formed and then specified by appropriate verification criteria. These hypotheses in turn are further specified by indicators in such manner that the coding of the causation factors by a code system meets the needs of database processing and are accessible to a quantitative data analysis. The first results of the descriptive comparison of the two age groups concern mainly differences in the functional levels "information admission/perception" (where the elderly drivers have more difficulties than the young ones) and "information processing/evaluation" (where the younger drivers show more problems). Concerning the cognitive function of "planning" the group of younger drivers seems to be more often involved in an accident because of excessive speed.
Der Vergleich der Ergebnisse aus drei von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) durchgeführten Studien ergab, dass keiner der bisher gewählten Ansätze optimal erscheint, um als Grundlage für eine langfristige Untersuchungsreihe zu schwerstverletzten Unfallopfern zu dienen. Dagegen verspricht die Verknüpfung der Daten des Traumaregisters der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie mit polizeilichen Unfalldaten einen Fortschritt. Somit könnten die Primärdaten zweier bereits etablierter Dokumentationssysteme für die künftige Untersuchung der Schwer(st)verletztenproblematik effizient genutzt werden. Zu einem ähnlichen Ergebnis kommt eine aktuelle Studie der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Hochschule Aachen und der Universitätsklinik Aachen aus dem Jahr 2009. Hierdurch wurde der viel versprechende Erkenntnisgewinn zur Verletzungsschwere und Verletzungsmustern belegt, der durch eine Zusammenführung der Daten der laut amtlicher Unfallstatistik Schwerstverletzten mit denjenigen der nach medizinischen Krankenakten ermittelten schweren Unfälle bestätigt.
Die amtliche Straßenverkehrsunfallstatistik kann nur in begrenztem Umfang Informationen zu Unfallentstehung, Unfallablauf sowie zu den zugrunde liegenden Verletzungsmechanismen bereitstellen. Verbleibende Informationslücken lassen sich durch spezielle Erhebungsteams schließen, die Verkehrsunfälle nach wissenschaftlichen Aspekten dokumentieren. Hierzu unterhalten das Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen und die Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen seit 30 Jahren ein Forschungsprojekt zur Unfalldatenerhebung an der Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover. Seit 1999 erfolgt eine Kooperation mit der Forschungsvereinigung Automobiltechnik (FAT), die ein weiteres Erhebungsteam an der Technischen Universität Dresden unterhält. Die Unfalldaten gehen in die gemeinsame GIDAS-Datenbank ein, aus der sich umfassende Informationen zu den breit gefächerten Forschungsfeldern "Passive und aktive Fahrzeugsicherheit", "Verkehrs- und Rettungsmedizin" und "Straßenbezogene Sicherheitsfragen" gewinnen lassen. In der Zukunft werden Unfallvermeidungsstrategien und Unfallursachenprophylaxe im Vordergrund einer prospektiven Unfallforschung stehen. Die Daten werden auch in Zukunft für die weitere Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit einen bedeutenden Beitrag leisten.
Der vorliegende Bericht befasst sich mit den Auswirkungen von teilasphärischen Außenspiegeln von Kraftfahrzeugen auf das Unfallgeschehen. Es wird untersucht, ob die Vorteile teilasphärischer Spiegel (größeres Sichtfeld, Reduzierung des "toten Winkels") mit Nachteilen durch die optisch bedingten Verzerrungen des Spiegels verbunden sind (zum Beispiel fehlerhafte Distanz- oder Geschwindigkeitsschätzungen). Hierzu wird ein mehrstufiges Vorgehen gewählt, dass aus der Bestimmung des derzeitigen Ausrüstungsstands, einer Zusammenstellung und vergleichenden Betrachtung nationaler und internationaler Richtlinien und einer umfangreichen Literaturrecherche zur bisherigen Spiegelforschung besteht. Auf der Grundlage dieser Informationen wird der aktuelle Wissensstand zur seitlichen und rückwärtigen Sicht aus Kraftfahrzeugen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der verschiedenen Arten von Außenspiegeln (plan, sphärisch konvex und teilasphärisch) ermittelt und systematisiert. Ergänzend wird im Rahmen von Unfallanalysen untersucht, ob die Verwendung neuartiger Spiegelsysteme einen messbaren Einfluss auf die Unfallstatistik hat. Besondere Relevanz haben in diesem Zusammenhang Unfälle bei AbbiegevorgÃ-¤ngen und Fahrspurwechseln, also Unfalltypen, bei denen der so genannte "tote Winkel" eine maßgebliche Rolle spielen könnte. Zusätzlich wird die Verwendung unterschiedlicher Spiegelsysteme und der Stand der Technik in der derzeitigen Fahrzeugpopulation ermittelt und eine Prognose für die weitere Entwicklung erarbeitet. Diese Erhebungen dienen als Basis für die Durchführung von drei Experimenten, die Informationen zum Einfluss teilasphärischer Spiegel auf die Wahrnehmung liefern sollen. Experiment 1 beschäftigt sich mit Distanzschätzungen durch plane, sphärische und teilasphärische Spiegel. Experiment 2 untersucht die Fähigkeit von Versuchspersonen, mit Hilfe eines planen, sphärischen oder teilasphärischen Außenspiegels die Distanz- und Geschwindigkeit eines sich nähernden Fahrzeugs einzuschätzen und so den Kollisionszeitpunkt zu bestimmen. Während die ersten beiden Experimente eher Nachteile teilasphärischer Spiegel zu entdecken versuchen, widmet sich Experiment 3 explizit der Frage nach den Vorteilen dieser Spiegel. Es wird daher untersucht, ob das größere Sichtfeld trotz optischer Verzerrungen genutzt werden kann und sich somit Fehleinschätzungen bei der Objekterkennung im "toten Winkel" signifikant reduzieren lassen. Die Experimente können keine Belege für sicherheitsrelevante Nachteile teilasphÃ-¤rischer Außenspiegel finden, sie zeigen jedoch, dass ein größeres, rückwärtiges Sichtfeld genutzt werden kann. Die EinfÃ-¼hrung teilasphärischer Außenspiegel wird daher befürwortet und es wird erwartet, dass diese positive Auswirkungen auf das Unfallgeschehen haben werden.
Durch chemisch-toxikologische Analysen von Blut- und Urinproben unfallverletzter Fahrer sowie eine detaillierte Unfallanalyse werden Daten über die Häufigkeit von Medikamenten, Drogen und Alkohol bei Verkehrsunfällen gewonnen und die Relevanz von Befunden hinsichtlich einer Unfallkausalität geprüft. Das Untersuchungskollektiv umfasst 500 unfallverletzte Fahrer in den Erhebungsgebieten Hannover und Saarland. In über einem Drittel der verunfallten Fahrer wurden verkehrsmedizinisch relevante Wirkstoffe nachgewiesen. Alkohol spielt hierbei eine dominante Rolle, zum Teil in Verbindung mit Medikamenten. In über drei Viertel der alkoholpositiven Proben wurden Blutalkoholkonzentrationen über 0,8 Promille gemessen. Ein Viertel aller Befunde lag über 1,7 Promille. Aus den Ergebnissen der Untersuchung wurde deutlich, dass aus dem Nachweis verkehrsmedizinisch relevanter Substanzen nicht zwingend ein Kausalzusammenhang zur Unfallverursachung abzuleiten ist. Bei 19 % der alkoholisierten Fahrer war der Unfall nicht auf das Fehlverhalten der Fahrer zurückzuführen.
Es wurden Unfälle, die im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes "Erhebungen am Unfallort" dokumentiert wurden, hinsichtlich der Häufigkeit und der Charakteristik von Pkw-Mehrfachkollisionen analysiert. Beschrieben wurden bei einer vergleichenden Gegenüberstellung von Einfach- und Mehrfachkollisionen die Besonderheiten, die die Mehrfachkollisionen prägen, und zwar im Vorfeld des Unfallgeschehens wie auch im Unfallgeschehen selbst. Mit allen beobachteten Unterschieden der Merkmalsausprägungen ist eine Steigerung der Ausgangsgeschwindigkeit, also der Geschwindigkeit, die vor dem Unfallgeschehen gefahren wurde, verbunden. Die Entstehungswahrscheinlichkeit von Mehrfachkollisionen steigt mit der Zunahme der Fahrgeschwindigkeiten. Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede sind lediglich für die Wahl der Ausgangsgeschwindigkeiten vor dem Unfallereignis von Bedeutung. Keine Rolle spielen Fahrzeugeigenschaften bei der Entstehung von Mehrfachkollisionen. Bei Mehrfachkollisionen wurde häufig beobachtet, dass Pkw seitlich mit Objekten am Straßenrand (Leitplanke, Bäume etc.) zusammenstoßen. Bei Seitenkollisionen treten überdurchschnittlich schwere Fahrzeugdeformationen sowie schwere Verletzungen am Kopf, im Thoraxbereich und an den oberen Extremitäten auf. Die Rekonstruktion von Mehrfachkollisionen wird durch ein oftmals komplexes Spuren- und Deformationsbild erschwert. Hilfreich erweisen sich fotogrammetrische Verfahren wie Stereoaufnahmen und Draufsichtfotografie.
An approach to the standardization of accident and injury registration systems (STAIRS) in Europe
(1998)
STAIRS is a European Commission funded study whose aim is to produce a set of guidelines for a harmonised, crash injury database. The need to evaluate the effectiveness of the forthcoming European Union front and side impact directives has emphasised the need for real world crash injury data-sets that can be representative of the crash population throughout Europe. STAIRS will provide a methodology to achieve this. The ultimate aim of STAIRS is to produce a set of data collection tools which will aid decision making on vehicle crashworthiness as well as providing a means to evaluate the effectiveness of safety regulations. This paper will disseminate the up-to-date findings of the group as they try to harmonise their methods. The stage has been reached where studies into the diverse methods of the UK, French and German systems of crash injury investigation have been undertaken. An assessment has already been made of the relationships between the three current systems in order to define the areas of agreement and divergence. The conclusions reached stated that there were many areas that are already closely related and that the differences were only at the detailed level. With the emphasis on secondary safety and injury causation, core data sets were decided upon, taking into account: vehicle description, collision configuration, structural response of vehicles, restraint and airbag performance, child restraint performance, Euro NCAP, pedestrian and vehicle occupant kinematics, injury description and causation. Each variable was studied objectively, the important elements isolated and developed into a form that all partners were agreeable on. A glossary of terms is being developed as the project progresses which includes ISO standards and other definitions from the associated CAREPLUS project, which addresses the comparability of national data sets. A major consideration of the group was the data collection method to be employed. The strengths and weaknesses of each study were investigated to obtain a clear idea of which aspects offered the best way forward. The quality of this information and transference into a common format, as well as the necessary error checking systems to be employed have just been completed and are described. In tandem with this area of study the problem of the statistical relationship of each sample to the national population is also being investigated. The study proposes a mechanism to use a sample of crash injury data to represent the national and international crash injury problem
Since its beginning in 1999, the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS) evolved into the presumably leading representative road traffic accident investigation in Europe, based on the work started in Hanover in 1973. The detailed and comprehensive description of traffic accidents forms an essential basis for vehicle safety research. Due to the ongoing extension of demands of researchers, there is a continuous progress in the techniques and systematic of accident investigation within GIDAS. This paper presents some of the most important developments over the last years. Primary vehicle safety systems are expected to have a significant and increasing influence on reducing accidents. GIDAS therefore began to include and collect active safety parameters as new variables from the year 2005 onwards. This will facilitate to assess the impact of present and future active safety measures. A new system to analyse causation factors of traffic accidents, called ACASS, was implemented in GIDAS in the year 2008. The whole process of data handling was optimised. Since 2005 the on-scene data acquisition is completely conducted with mobile tablet PCs. Comprehensive plausibility checks assure a high data quality. Multi-language codebooks are automatically generated from the database structure itself and interfaces ensure the connection to various database management systems. Members of the consortium can download database and codebook, and synchronize half a terabyte of photographic documentation through a secured online access. With the introduction of the AIS 2005 in the year 2006, some medical categorizations have been revised. To ensure the correct assignment of AIS codes to specific injuries an application based on a diagnostic dictionary was developed. Furthermore a coding tool for the AO classification was introduced. All these enhancements enable GIDAS to be up to date for future research questions.
The incidence and treatment of sternal fractures among traffic accidents are of increasing importance to ensure best possible outcomes. Analysis of technical indicators of the collision, preclinical and clinical data of patients with sterna fractures from 1985-2004 among 42,055 injured patients were assessed by an Accident Research Unit. Two time groups were categorized: 1985-1994 (A) vs. 1995-2004 (B). 267/42,055 patients (0.64%) suffered a sterna fracture. Regarding the vehicle type, the majority occurred after car accidents in 0.81% (251/31,183 pts), followed by 0.19% (5/2,633pts) driving motorbike, and 0.11% (4/3,258pts) driving a truck. 91% wore a safety belt. Only 13% of all passengers suffering a sternal fracture had an airbag on board (33/255 car/trucks), with an airbag malfunction in 18%. The steering column was deformed in 39%, the steering wheel in 36%. Cars in the recent years were significantly older (7.67-±5 years (B) vs. 5.88-±5 years (A), p=0.003). Cervical spine injuries are frequent (23% vs. 22%), followed by multiple rib fractures (14% vs. 12%) and lung injuries (12% vs. 11%). We found 9/146 (6%) and 3/121 patients (3%) with heart contusion among the 267 sternal fractures. MAIS was 2.56-±1.3 vs. 2.62-±1.3 (A vs. B, p=0.349). 18% of patients were polytraumatized, with 11.2% dying at the scene, 2.3% in the hospital. Sternal fractures occur most often in old cars to seat-belted drivers often without any airbag. Severe multiple rib fractures and lung contusion are concomitant injuries in more than 10% each indicating the severity of the crash. Over a twentyyear period, the injury severity encountered was not different with 18% polytrauma patients suffering sternal fractures.
[Introduction:] A large number of road users involved in road traffic crashes recover from their injuries, but some of them never recover fully and suffer from some kind of permanent disability. In addition to loss of life or reduced quality of life, road accidents carry many and diverse consequences to the survivors such as legal implications, economic burden, job absences, need of care from a third person, home and vehicle adaptations as well as psychological consequences. Within an EU funded project MOVE/C4/SUB/2011-294/SI2.628846 (REHABIL AID) these consequences were analyzed more detailed.
Injury severity of e.g. pedestrians or bikers after crashes with cars that are reversing is almost unknown. However, crash victims of these injuries can frequently be seen in emergency departments and account for a large amount of patients every year. The objective of this study is to analyze injury severity of patients that were crashed into by reversing cars. The Hannover Medical School local accident research unit prospectively documented 43,000 road traffic accidents including 234 crashes involving reversing cars. Injury severity including the abbreviated injury scale (AIS) and the maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) was analyzed as well as the location of the accident. As a result 234 accidents were included into this study. Pedestrians were injured in 141 crashes followed by 70 accidents involving bikers. The mean age of all crash victims was 57 -± 23 years. Most injuries took place on straight stretches (n = 81) as well as parking areas (n = 59), entries (n = 36) or crossroads (n = 24). The AIS of the lower extremities was highest followed by the upper extremities. The AIS of the neck was lowest. The mean MAIS was 1.3 -± 0.6. The paper concludes that the lower extremities show the highest risk to become injured during accidents with reversing cars. However, the risk of severe injuries is likely low.
Annually within the European Union, there are over 50,000 road accident fatalities and 2 million other casualties, of which the majority are either the occupants of cars or other road users in collision with a car. The European Commission now has competency for vehicle-based injury countermeasures through the Whole Vehicle Type Approval system. As a result, the Commission has recognised that casualty reduction strategies must be based on a full understanding of the real-world need under European conditions and that the effectiveness of vehicle countermeasures must be properly evaluated. The PENDANT study commenced in January 2003 in order to explore the possibility of developing a co-ordinated set of targeted, in-depth crash data resources to support European Union vehicle and road safety policy. Three main work activity areas (Work Packages) commenced to provide these resources. This paper describes some of the outcomes of Work Package 2 (WP2, In-depth Crash Investigations and Data Analysis). In WP2, some 1,100 investigations of crashes involving injured car occupants were conducted in eight EU countries to a common protocol based on that developed in the STAIRS programme. This paper describes the purposes, methodology and results of WP2. It is expected that the results will be used as a co-ordinated system to inform European vehicle safety policy in a systematic, integrated manner. Furthermore, the results of the data analyses will be exploited further to provide new directions to develop injury countermeasures and regulations.
The bicyclist accidents were analyzed to get better understanding of the occurrences and frequency of the accidents, injury distributions, as well as correlation of injury severity/outcomes with engineering and human factors in two different countries of China and Germany. The accident cases that occurred from 2001 to 2006 were collected from IVAC database in Changsha and GIDAS database in Hannover. Based on specified sampling criteria, 1,570 bicyclist cases were selected from IVAC database in Changsha, and 1806 cases were collected from Hannover, documented in GIDAS database. Statistical analyses were carried out by using these selected data. The results from the statistical analysis are presented and discussed in this study.
While cyclists and pedestrians are known to be at significant risk for severe injuries when exposed to road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving trucks, little is known about RTA injury risk for truck drivers. The objective of this study is to analyze the injury severity in truck drivers following RTAs. Between 1999 and 2008 the Hannover Medical School Accident Research Unit prospectively documented 43,000 RTAs involving 582 trucks. Injury severity including the abbreviated injury scale (AIS) and the maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) were analyzed. Technical parameters (e.g. delta-v, direction of impact), the location of accident, and its dependency on the road type were also taken into consideration. The results show that the safety of truck drivers is assured by their vehicles, the consequence being that the risk of becoming injured is likely to be low. However, the legs especially are at high risk for severe injuries during RTAs. This probability increases in the instance of a collision with another truck. Nevertheless, in RTAs involving trucks and regular passenger vehicles, the other party is in higher risk of injury.
Pedestrian and cyclist are the most vulnerable road users in traffic crashes. One important aspect of this study was the comparable analysis of the exact impact configuration and the resulting injury patterns of pedestrians and cyclists in view of epidemiology. The secondary aim was assessment of head injury risks and kinematics of adult pedestrian and cyclists in primary and secondary impacts and to correlate the injuries related to physical parameters like HIC value, 3ms linear acceleration, and discuss the technical parameter with injuries observed in real-world accidents based documented real accidents of GIDAS and explains the head injuries by simulated load and impact conditions based on PC-Crash and MADYMO. A subsample of n=402 pedestrians and n=940 bicyclists from GIDAS database, Germany was used for preselection, from which 22 pedestrian and 18 cyclist accidents were selected for reconstruction by initially using PC-Crash to calculate impact conditions, such as vehicle impact velocity, vehicle kinematic sequence and throw out distance. The impact conditions then were employed to identify the initial conditions in simulation of MADYMO reconstruction. The results show that cyclists always suffer lower injury outcomes for the same accident severity. Differences in HIC, head relative impact velocity, 3ms linear contiguous acceleration, maximum angular velocity and acceleration, contact force, throwing distance and head contact timing are shown. The differences of landing conditions in secondary impacts of pedestrians and cyclists are also identified. Injury risk curves were generated by logistic regression model for each predicting physical parameters.
Still correlated with high mortality rates in traffic accidents traumatic aortic ruptures were frequently detected in unprotected car occupants in the early years. This biomechanical analysis investigates the different kinds of injury mechanisms leading to traumatic aortic injuries in todays traffic accidents and how the way of traffic participation affects the frequency of those injuries over the years. Based on GIDAS reported traffic accidents from 1973 to 2014 are analyzed. Results show that traumatic aortic injuries are mainly observed in high-speed accidents with high body deceleration and direct load force to the chest. Mostly chest compression is responsible for the load direction to the cardiac vessels. The main observed load vector is from caudal-ventral and from ventral solely, but also force impact from left and right side and in roll-over events with chest compression lead to traumatic aortic injuries. Classically, the injury appeares at the junction between the well-fixed aortic arch and the pars decendens following a kind of a scoop mechanism, a few cases with a hyperflexion mechanism are also described. In our analysis the deceleration effect alone never led to an aortic rupture. Comparing the past 40 years aortic injuries shift from unprotected car occupants to today's unprotected vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Still the accident characteristics are linked with chest compression force under high speed impact, no seatbelt and direct body impact.
Bicyclists are minimally or unprotected road users. Their vulnerability results in a high injury risk despite their relatively low own speed. However, the actual injury situation of bicyclists has not been investigated very well so far. The purpose of this study was to analyze the actual injury situation of bicyclists in Germany to create a basis for effective preventive measures. Technical and medical data were prospectively collected shortly after the accident at the accident scenes and medical institutions providing care for the injured. Data of injured bicyclists from 1985 to 2003 were analyzed for the following parameters: collision opponent, collision type, collision speed (km/h), Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), Maximum AIS (MAIS), incidence of polytrauma (Injury Severity Score >16), incidence of death (death before end of first hospital stay). 4,264 injured bicyclists were included. 55% were male and 45% female. The age was grouped to preschool age in 0.9%, 6 to 12 years in 10.8%, 13 to 17 years in 10.4%, 18 to 64 years in 64.7%, and over 64 years in 13.2%. The MAIS was 1 in 78.8%, 2 in 17.0%, 3 in 3.0%, 4 in 0.6%, 5 in 0.4%, and 6 in 0.2%. The incidence of polytrauma was 0.9%, and the incidence of death was 0.5%. The incidence of injuries to different body regions was as follows: head, 47.8%; neck, 5.2%, thorax, 21%; upper extremities, 46.3%; abdomen, 5.8%; pelvis, 11.5%, lower extremities, 62.1%. The accident location was urban in 95.2%, and rural in 4.8%. The accidents happened during daylight in 82.4%, during night in 12.2%, and during dawn/dusk in 5.3%. The road situation was as follows: straight, 27.3%; bend, 3.0%; junction, 32.0%; crossing, 26.4%; gate, 5.9%; others, 5.4%. The collision opponents were cars in 65.8%, trucks in 7.2%, bicycles in 7.4%, standing objects in 8.8%, multiple objects in 4.3%, and others in 6.5%. The collision speed was grouped <31 in 77.9%, 31-50 in 4.9%, 51-70 in 3.7%, and >70 in 1.5%. The helmet use rate was 1.5%. 68% of the registered head injuries were located in the effective helmet protection area. In bicyclists, head and extremities are at high risk for injuries. The helmet use rate is unsatisfactorily low. Remarkably, two thirds of the head injuries could have been prevented by helmets. Accidents are concentrated to crossings, junctions and gates. A significant lower mean injury severity was observed in victims using separate bicycle lanes. These results do strongly support the extension or addition of bicycle lanes and their consequent use. However, the lanes are frequently interrupted at crossings and junctions. This emphasizes also the important endangering of bicyclists coming from crossings, junctions and gates, i.e. all situations in which contact of bicyclists to motorized vehicles is possible. Redesigning junctions and bicycle traffic lanes to minimize the possibility of this dangerous contact would be preventive measures. A more consequent helmet use and use and an extension of bicycle paths for a better separation of bicyclists and motorized vehicle would be simple but very effective preventive measures.
The national accident statistics demonstrate that the situation of passenger car side impacts is dominated by car to car accidents. Car side to pole impacts are relatively infrequent events. However the importance of car side to pole impacts is significantly increasing with fatal and seriously injured occupants. For the present study the German in-depth database GIDAS (German In-Depth-Accident Study) and the UK based database CCIS (Co-operative Crash Injury Study) were used. Two approaches were undertaken to better understand the scenario of car to pole impacts. The first part is a statistical analysis of passenger car side to pole impacts to describe the characteristics and their importance relevant to other types of impact and to get further knowledge about the main factors influencing the accident outcome. The second part contains a case by case review on passenger cars first registered 1998 onwards to further investigate this type of impact including regression analysis to assess the relationship between injury severity and pole impact relevant factors.
For the avoidance of traffic accidents by means of advanced driver assistance systems the knowledge of failures and deficiencies a few seconds before the crash is of increasing importance. This information e.g. is collected in the German accident survey GIDAS by an interview derived from the ACAS methodology. However to display the whole range of accident causation factors additional information is needed on enduring factors of the system components "human", "infrastructure" and "machine". On the strategic level these accident moderating factors include long term influences such as medical preconditions or a general higher risk taking behavior as well as influences on the immediate conflict level such as an aggressive response to a perceived previous traffic conflict. This study was conducted to examine the feasibility of collecting such causation information in the scope of an in-depth accident investigation like GIDAS. Due to the comprehensive amount of information necessary to estimate the moderating factors the collection of the information is distributed to different methods. 5 cases of real world crashes have been investigated where information was collected on-scene and retrospective by interviews. The identified moderating factors of the accidents and the method for collecting the information are displayed.
Introduction: The method of causation analysis applied under the German accident survey GIDAS, which is based on Accident Causation Analysis System (ACAS) focuses on an on-scene data collection of predominantly directly event-related causation factors which were crucial in the accident emergence as situational resulting events and influences. The paradigm underlying this method refers to the findings of the psychological traffic accident research that most causally relevant features of the system components human, infrastructure and vehicle technology are found directly in the situation shortly before the accident. This justifies the survey method which is conducted directly at the accident (on-scene), shortly after the accident occurrence (in-time) with the detection of human-related causes (in-depth). Human aspects of the situation analysis that interact and influence the risk situations shortly before the collision are reported as errors, lapses, mistakes and failures in ACAS in specific categories and subcategories. Thus methodically ACAS is designed primarily for the collection of accident features on the level of operational action, which certainly leads to valid findings and behavioral causes of accidents. The enhancement by means of Moderating Conditions concerns the pre-crash phase in different levels: strategical, tactical and operational.
This study aimed at prediction of long bone fractures and assessment of lower extremity injury mechanisms in real world passenger car to pedestrian collision. For this purpose, two pedestrian accident cases with detail recorded lower limb injuries were reconstructed via combining MBS (Multi-body system) and FE (Finite element) methods. The code of PC Crash was used to determine the boundary conditions before collision, and then MBS models were used to reproduce the pedestrian kinematics and injuries during crash. Furthermore, a validated lower limb FE model was chosen to conduct reconstruction of injuries and prediction of long bone fracture via physical parameters of von Mises stress and bending moment. The injury outcomes from simulations were compared with hospital recorded injury data and the same long bone fracture patterns and positions can be observed. Moreover, the calculated long bone fracture tolerance corresponded to the outcome from cadaver tests. The result shows that FE model is capable to reproduce the dynamic injury process and is an effective tool to predict the risk of long bone fractures.
A set of recommendations for pan-European transparent and independent road accident investigations has been developed by the SafetyNet project. The aim of these recommendations is to pave the way for future EU scale accident investigation activities by setting out the necessary steps for establishing safety oriented road accident investigations in Member States. This can be seen as the start of the process for establishing road accident investigations throughout Europe which operate according to a common methodology. The recommendations propose a European Safety Oriented Road Accident Investigation Programme which sets out the procedures that need to be put in place to investigate a sample of every day road accidents. They address four sets of issues; institutional addressing the characteristics of the programme; operational describing the conditions under which data isrncollected; data storage and protection; and reports, countermeasures and the dissemination of data.rn
In the context of the COST357 research project, the climatic conditions and requirements for protective helmets for motorcyclists have been examined. The extent to which these factors would influence motorbike handling and accidents in which motorcyclists are involved have also been examined. This project addresses how cognitive abilities of motorcyclists relate to helmet construction factors. In particular, the aspects of motorcycle driver helmets are to be parameterized in order that they may be used subsequently as a basis for future requirement profiles. The task of one working group of the COST357 project has been to analyse accident events and to identify helmet design issues which affect motorcycle drivers while wearing a helmet. This has been achieved by collating accident data across different countries recorded in the course of in-depth investigations at the site of accidents and by combining this with field studies of motorcyclists participating in traffic, but not involved in accidents. This paper presents the study methodology, database and first results of this international survey. The basis of the study has been a total of 424 interviews of motorcyclists and 134 motorcycle accidents, which were collected across Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Turkey and combined in a single database.
