Sonstige
Rollovers continue to be a major source of heavy truck fatalities when compared to other accident modes. Real world rollover accidents are analyzed and two distinct damage patterns are identified. Damage to heavy truck roofs can occur from lateral loading that transitions to vertical roof loading as the vehicle rolls onto its side and then over onto its roof. A second load path can occur when the vehicle has rolled onto its side and furrows into the ground generating large longitudinal friction forces between the roof and ground. A review of the previous literature and various test methodologies are presented. A sled impact test methodology is presented which allows for structural assessment of a heavy truck cab's crashworthiness in both of these loading environments. Two test series are presented using the sled impact test methodology in order to analyze real world truck rollovers using varying impact platen and contact angles. The structural deformation and failure patterns were found to be consistent with damage seen in real world accident vehicles. In each case, a second equivalent truck cab was then reinforced and tested under similar conditions to evaluate the energy management and crush resistance of a stronger cab structure. These structural reinforcements demonstrated a substantial reduction in roof crush and protected the survival space of the occupant compartment. The sled impact test procedure is an effective method for testing the structural performance of a heavy truck cab in a variety of loading scenarios comparable to real world accidents and ascertaining the load and energy load levels in these accident modes.
Diese Studie erfolgte als eine erste Prüfung der Frage, ob 0,1 Promille als Sicherheitszuschlag für eine Bestimmung eines Blutalkoholwertes von 0,1 Promille aus Gründen der Messunsicherheit angebracht und ausreichend ist. Beides trifft zu. Obwohl zur Zeit der Studie noch nicht bei oder unter 0,2 Promille kalibriert wurde, bestimmten alle Labors eine Blutalkoholkonzentration von 0,08 Promille mit einem Wert unter 0,18 g/L (Cmax ADH: 0,15 g/L = CmaxGC: 0,15 g/L = Blutalkoholkonzentration (BAK) von 0,12 Promille). Es bestand kein Bias zwischen beiden Verfahren. Festgestellte Standabweichungen: ADH: 0,021 g/L, GC: 0,025 g/L. Ein Sicherheitszuschlag von 0,1 Promille auf 0,1 Promille umfasst demnach vier Standardabweichungen und bietet für die neue Regelung im Paragrafen 24 Straßenverkehrsgesetz (StVG) bei der richtliniengemäß ausgeführten forensischen Blutalkoholbestimmung genügend Analysensicherheit.
Der Beitrag setzt sich mit folgenden Fragestellungen auseinander: 1. Stellen ältere Kraftfahrer ein Sicherheitsrisiko für den Straßenverkehr dar? 2. Wie wurden diese Frage und die "Fahreignung und Fahrtüchtigkeit älterer Kraftfahrer" in den vergangenen 50 Jahren wissenschaftlich bewertet - insbesondere bei Kongressen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Verkehrsmedizin und den Deutschen Verkehrsgerichtstagen? 3. Wie haben in den vergangenen 50 Jahren Juristen, Behörden und Gesetzgeber die "Fahreignung älterer Kraftfahrer" gesehen und umgesetzt? 4. Werden morbiditäts- und altersbedingte Beeinträchtigungen der Leistungsfähigkeit rechtzeitig und richtig durch ältere Kraftfahrer erkannt? 5. Wie gehen ältere Kraftfahrer mit erkannten Leistungsmängeln um? 6. Benötigen ältere Verkehrsteilnehmer Aufklärung, Beratung, Fortbildung und Vorsorge- oder Kontrolluntersuchungen? Insgesamt kann festgestellt werden, dass allein aus normalem Altersabbau und hohem Alter kein Rückschluss auf die Fahruntauglichkeit gezogen werden kann. Das wichtigste gesellschaftliche Ziel für die Teilnahme älterer Menschen am Straßenverkehr ist - angesichts der demographischen Entwicklung - die Einsichtsfähigkeit in das altersbedingt verminderte Leistungsvermögen und den Veränderungswillen zu Kompensationsmechanismen bei älteren Verkehrsteilnehmern zu schärfen. Der behandelnde Arzt, Angehörige und sonstige Bezugspersonen sollten alles tun, um den bejahrten Kraftfahrer zu motivieren, sich seiner Selbstverantwortung bewusst zu werden und demgemäß zu handeln.
Data concerning accidents involving personal injury which have been collected in the context of in-depth investigations on scene in the Hannover area since 1973 and in the Dresden area since 1999 represent an important basis for empirical traffic safety research. At national and international level various analyses and comparisons are carried out on the basis of "in-depth data" from the above mentioned investigations. In-depth data play a decisive role e.g. within the validation of EuroNCAP results on secondary safety (crashworthiness) of individual passenger car models. Thus, statistically sound methods of data analysis and population parameter estimation are of high importance. Since the 1st of August 1984 the "in-depth investigations on scene" in the Hannover area have been carried out according to a sampling plan developed by HAUTZINGER in the context of a research project on behalf of BASt. In the meantime a second region of in-depth investigation on scene was added with surveys in Dresden and the surrounding area. Internationally, the acronym GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) is commonly used for the two above mentioned surveys. The objective of a current research project (topic of this contribution) is, among other things, to examine and adjust the previous weighting and expansion method for the two regional accident investigations to the current general conditions.
Empirical vehicle crashworthiness studies are usually based on national or in-depth traffic accident surveys: Data on accident-involved cars/drivers are analysed in order to quantify the chance of driver injury and to assess certain risk factors like car make and model. As the cars/drivers involved in the same accident form a "cluster", where the size of the cluster equals the number of accident-involved parties, traffic accident survey data are typical multi-level data with accidents as first-level or primary and cars/drivers as secondlevel or secondary units (car occupants in general are to be considered as third level units). Consequently, appropriate statistical multi-level models are to be used for driver injury risk estimation purposes as these models properly account for the cluster structure of traffic accident survey data. In recent years various types of regression models for clustered data have been developed in the statistical sciences. This paper presents multi-level statistical models, which are generally applicable for vehicle crashworthiness assessment in the sense that data on single and multiple car crashes can be analysed simultaneously. As a special case of multi-level modelling driver injury risk estimation based on paired-by-collision car/driver data is considered. It is demonstrated that assessment results may be seriously biased, if the cluster structure inherent in traffic accident survey data is erroneously ignored in the data analysis stage.
The so-called "seat-belt injuries" or "seat-belt syndromes", described as 2-point seat-belt injuries, contain heavy inflection injuries of the lumbal spinal column, combined with heavy abdominal injuries as rupture of the upper intestinal bold or heavy injuries of the upper entrails. With "playing" children in the font of the car, with inappropriate plant of 3-point belts, identical injuries can occur.
This study analyses no.39 cases in which n.41 motorcyclists were fatally injured, or 36% of total motorcycle fatalities in Northern Ireland between 2004 and 2010 (n.114). There were n.17 cases (43.6%) where the actions of another vehicle driver caused the collision, in thirteen of these cases the motorcycles had their lights switched on. The remaining n.22 collisions (56.4%) were due to the actions of the motorcyclist. In the approach to the collision scene, there were n.13 cases (31.7%) in which the approach was a right hand bend and in n.8 (19.5%) cases, the approach was a left hand bend. In the remaining n.18 (43.9%) cases, the approach was a straight road. Of the n.17 (41.4%) motorcycles that slid after falling, n.10 (24.4%) fell onto their right side and the remaining n.7 (17.1%) fell onto their left side. The information from this study identifies primary and contributory causes of motorcycle collisions.
The number of injured car occupants decreases constantly. Nevertheless, they account for nearly 50% of all fatalities and about 44% of all seriously injured persons in German traffic accidents. Further reductions of casualties require multiple efforts in all parts of traffic safety. In this paper a detailed analysis of the important pre-hospital rescue phase was done. The basis for future improvements is the knowledge about injury causation of car occupants in combination with other corresponding influence factors. For that reason more than 1.200 severe (AIS3+) injuries of frontal car occupants were analyzed. For the most relevant injuries of car occupants multivariate analysis models were created to predict the probability of these injuries in a real crash scenario. In addition to the collision severity different influence factors like impact direction, seat belt usage, age of the occupant, and gender were analyzed. Furthermore, the models were checked regarding the goodness of fit and all results all results were checked concerning their robustness. The prediction models were created on the basis of 5.000 car accidents. Afterwards, the models were validated using 4.000 different car accidents. The prediction of the probability of severe injuries could be used for different applications in the field of traffic safety. One possibility is the implementation of the models in a tool for the on-the-spot diagnosis. The background for the development of such applications is the fact, that there are only limited diagnostic possibilities available at the accident scene. Nevertheless, the rescue forces have to make essential decisions like the alerting of the necessary medical experts, appropriate treatment, the type of transportation and the choice of an adequate hospital. These decisions quite often decide between life and death or influence the long-term effects of injured persons. At this point, indications of expectable injuries could help enormously. To enable even persons with limited technical knowledge to use the tool, a procedure was developed that facilitates the assumption of the given crash severity. Another important possibility for the application of the prediction models is the use for the qualification of information sent by e-call systems.
Over the last decades the number of traffic accident fatalities on German roads decreased by 77% down to 4968 in the year 2007. This positive development is due to optimisations of vehicle safety, roads and infrastructure and medical rescue issues. Up to now mostly the optimisations of secondary safety measures lead to this effect on vehicle safety. Since some years more and more driver assistance systems are available and lead to a further reduction of all accidents. These new systems are often comfort systems and have not primarily been developed to increase vehicle safety. In contrast to secondary safety systems primary safety systems are able to mitigate and avoid accidents. So in the future it is important to estimate the benefit of these systems in reducing accident numbers as well. Current benefit estimation methods mostly focus on a single system only and not on the combination of systems. In this paper a new method for a multivariate benefit estimation based on real accident data is developed. The paper describes the basic method to estimate the benefit of primary and secondary safety systems in combination. With the presented method the benefit will not be overestimated as it would be by a simple addition of the benefits of single systems. The model will be validated by a multivariate prospective benefit estimation of different vehicle safety systems in comparison to single benefit estimations of the same systems. For this the German In-Depth Accident Database is used. The results show the importance to implement the interactions of safety systems in the estimation process and rate the overestimation by a simple addition of the single system benefits. The validation includes primary and secondary safety systems in combination. The validation is done using more than 3500 real accidents which were initiated by cars. This sample out of the GIDAS database is representative for the current accident situation in Germany. The paper shows the necessity of a multivariate estimation of the benefit for existing and future safety systems.
In the last years various new driver information and driver assistance systems made their way into modern vehicles and there are yet countless systems underway. However, expenses for both, the development and the construction of these systems are tremendous. Therefore the interest of evaluating systems keeps growing steadily, not only regarding the results of systems developed in the last years but also regarding system ideas. Only if at least a rough benefit estimation is given, the industry can decide which development should be supported. However, there is still a lack of transparency of possible and useful methods for these kinds of estimations. These were analyses and structured in this study.