91 Fahrzeugkonstruktion
Aufgabe der Studie war eine erstmalige umfassende Erhebung der Ausstattung der Pkw in Deutschland mit Fahrzeugsicherheitssystemen. Dazu wurden 5.070 Haushalte zur Ausstattung eines ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Fahrzeugs befragt. Für die Befragung wurden 53 Fahrzeugsicherheitssysteme ausgewählt. Darunter sind neue Systeme wie Stauassistenten und Kreuzungsassistenten sowie auch weitgehend etablierte Systeme wie die Fahrdynamikregelung (ESP) und Airbags. Neben den Nutzern wurden auch Experten befragt, die beruflich mit dem Ein- oder Verkauf von Pkw für Unternehmensflotten befasst sind. Diese zehn qualitativen Interviews geben einen Einblick in die Bedeutung verschiedener Kriterien bei der Fahrzeugwahl und speziell den Stellenwert von Fahrzeugsicherheitssystemen. Die weiteste Verbreitung haben passive Sicherheitssysteme wie Airbags, die darauf abzielen, die Folgen eines Unfalls für die Beteiligten abzumildern. Aber auch aktive und intervenierende Systeme, die Risiken vermeiden oder einzelne Fahraufgaben übernehmen, gehören häufig zur Fahrzeugausstattung. Die häufigsten Vertreter aus dieser Gruppe sind der Bremsassistent, ESP und der Tempomat. Die meisten Fahrzeugsicherheitssysteme sind in Fahrzeugen der oberen Mittelklasse und Oberklasse zu finden. Mit der jährlichen Fahrleistung und der Nutzungshäufigkeit nimmt die Anzahl der Sicherheitssysteme ebenso zu wie bei jüngeren Fahrzeugen und Dienstwagen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen ein Muster: Sind Systeme insgesamt selten, unterscheiden sich die Anteile innerhalb der verschiedenen Fahrzeugsegmente teilweise erheblich. Neue Systeme sind dann in den Fahrzeugen der oberen Mittelklasse und Oberklasse deutlich häufiger zu finden und in den Minis und Kleinwagen teilweise mit nicht messbaren Anteilen. Die Experteninterviews, die mit Flottenbetreibern und Fahrzeugverkäufern geführt wurden, zeigen, dass solche Fahrzeugsicherheitssysteme in die Standardausstattung aufgenommen werden, deren Nutzen nachgewiesen ist.
The Traffic Accident Research Institute at University of Technology Dresden investigates about 1,000 accidents annually in the area around and in Dresden. These datasets have been summarized and evaluated in the GIDAS (German Accident In-Depth Study) project for 13 years. During the project it became apparent that the specific traffic situation of a covert exit of a passenger car and an intersecting two-wheeler involves a high risk potential. This critical situation develops in a large part due to the lack of visibility between the driver and the intersecting bike. In this paper the accident avoidance potential of front camera systems with lateral field of view, which allows the driver to have an indirect sight into the crossing street area will be presented.
Today's volumes of traffic require more and more responsibility from each individual road user in their interactions. Those who drive motor vehicles have the singular obligation to minimise the risk of accidents and hence the severity of injuries, particularly with a view to the most vulnerable road users such as motor bikes, bikes and pedestrians. Since responsible and pro-active driving depends first and foremost on the visual information relayed by our eyes and the visual channel this requires good command of the traffic and all-round visibility from our driver's seat. Granted that human error can never be fully excluded, improving visibility around the car is nevertheless an urgent priority. To do so, we need to rate visibility in the most realistic driving situations. Since the existing visibility metrics and methodology are not applicable to real-life driving situations, this study aimed at developing a new visibility rating methodology based on real-life accident scenarios. On the basis of the cases documented by the accident research project, this study analysed criteria indicative of diminishing visibility on the one hand and revealing some peculiarities in connection with the visibility issue on the other. Based on the above, the project set out to develop a rating methodology allowing to assess all-round visibility in various road situations taking into account both driver and road geometries. In this context, the assessment of visibility while turning a corner, crossing an intersection and joining traffic on a major road (priority through route) is of major importance. The first tests have shown that critical situations can be avoided by adapting the relevant geometries and technical solutions and that significant improvements of road safety can be derived therefrom.
The paper gives an overview of the recent (mostly 2012) figures of killed bus/coach occupants (drivers and passengers) in 27 Member States of the European Union as reported by CARE. The Evolution of the figures of bus/coach occupants killed in road accidents urban, rural without motorway and on motorways from 1991 to 2010 in 15 Member States of the EU supplements this information. More detailed are the figures reported for Germany by the Federal Statistics. The paper displays long-term evaluations (1957 to 2012) for killed, seriously and slightly injured occupants in all kinds of buses/coaches. Midterm evaluations (1995 to 2012) of the figures of fatalities and casualties are displayed for different busses according to their identification of road using as coaches, urban buses, school buses, trolley buses and "other buses". To be able to compare the evolutions of the safety of vehicle occupants it is customary to use different risk indicators. Calculations and illustrations for three often used indicators with their development over time are given: fatalities, seriously injured and slightly injured per 100,000 vehicles registered, per 1 billion (109) vehicle-kilometres travelled and per 1 billion (109) person-kilometres. These indicators are shown for occupants of cars, goods vehicles and buses/coaches. For the period from 1957 until 2012 it is obvious, that for all three vehicle categories analysed there was a clear long-term trend towards more occupant safety in terms of casualties per vehicles registered and per vehicle mileage. This was most significant for car occupants but it can be seen for bus/coach occupants and goodsvehicle occupants as well. Figures of killed occupants and of casualties related to person-kilometres are calculated and displayed for the shorter period 1995 to 2012. Here it becomes obvious that the bus/coach is still the safest mode of transport for the occupants of road vehicles. Graphs for the casualty risk indices still show significantly higher risks for car occupants despite the corresponding curve moved sustainable downwards. It is remarkable, that the risks of being killed or injured for the occupants of urban buses is growing whereas the corresponding risk for the occupants of coaches in line traffic tends downwards. The article ends with a short comparison and discussion of the risk indicators which are actually published for the occupants (driver and passengers) of cars and the passengers of buses/coaches, railroads, trams and airplanes. The interpretation of such information depends on the perception and it seems that for a complete view not only one indicator should be used and the evolutions of the indicator values during longer periods (as displayed with examples in the paper) should also be taken into account.
For the estimation of the benefit and effect of innovative Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) on the collision positions and by association on the accident severity, together with the economic benefit, it becomes necessary to simulate and evaluate a variety of virtual accidents with different start values (e.g. initial speed). Taken into account the effort necessary for a manual reconstruction, only an automated crash computation can be considered for this task. This paper explains the development of an automated crash computation based on GIDAS. The focus will be on the design of the virtual vehicle models, the method of the crash computation as well as exemplary applications of the automated crash computation. For the first time an automated crash computation of passenger car accidents has been realized. Using the automated crash computation different tasks within the field of vehicle safety can be elaborated. This includes, for example, the calculation of specific accident parameters (such as EES or delta-V) for various accident constellations and the estimation of the economic benefit of DAS using IRFs (Injury Risk Functions).