Sonstige
Im Menschen wird auf verschiedenen Stoffwechselwegen Alkohol endogen im Körper gebildet. Die Literatur zu endogenen Ethanolspiegeln ist zum Teil widersprüchlich. Außerdem gibt es in der Literatur Hinweise auf ethnische Differenzen in der Höhe der endogenen Ethanolspiegel. In der neueren Literatur wird die Relevanz des endogenen Ethanols als Schutzbehauptung bei absolutem Alkoholverbot abgelehnt. Mittels moderner Analyseverfahren (GC-MS) sollte überprüft werden, ob unter normalen Bedingungen endogene Ethanolspiegel den Grenzwertbereich von 0,2 Promille tangieren. Bei den 49 Probanden ergab sich eine Größenordnung von 0,0016 Promille endogenem Ethanol für den Mittelwert. Die höchste Konzentration lag bei 0,0057 Promille endogenem Ethanol.
Die aktuellen Richtlinien zur Bestimmung der Blutalkoholkonzentration (BAK) für forensische Zwecke (BAK-Richtlinie, 2007) lassen unter bestimmten Bedingungen auch zwei verschiedene gaschromatographische Analysen anstatt der häufig angewandten Kombination Gaschromatographie und enzymatische Methode ADH zur Bestimmung des Blutalkoholgehaltes zu. Untersucht wurde die Messpräzision zweier gaschromatographischer Verfahren bei der Alkoholanalytik im Vergleich zur häufiger angewandten Methodenkombination. In mehr als 50 Prozent der Fälle hat sich bei den verglichenen Methodenkombinationen ein identischer Mittelwert ergeben. Ansonsten waren die Abweichungen gering. Damit werden die hohen Anforderungen, die an die forensische Blutalkoholbestimmung gestellt werden, durch die modernen Laborautomaten erfüllt.
Gegenstand der Untersuchung, bei dem die Blutalkoholuntersuchungsbefunde des Instituts für Rechtsmedizin der Universität Bonn aus den Jahren 1997, 1999 und 2003 retrospektiv ausgewertet wurden, war zum einen die Frage nach dem Frauenanteil und der Beteiligung von Alkoholikern an der Trunkenheitsdelinquenz im Straßenverkehr. Zum anderen sollte nachvollzogen werden, inwieweit die im Laborversuch ermittelten Konversionsfaktoren bei der Anwendung in der polizeilichen Praxis bestätigt werden können. In der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion der pharmakokinetischen Grundlagen wurden nach Trinkversuchen unter Laborbedingungen Zweifel an einer ausreichend gesicherten Korrelation zwischen Atem- und Blutalkoholkonzentration geäussert. Die Auswertung von 1.889 Datensätzen mit dem Ziel der Analyse der Zusammenhänge zwischen Blut- und Atemalkoholkonzentration in der Praxis ergab im Vergleich zu einer früheren Studie, dass die Resultate innerhalb enger Grenzen übereinstimmen und sie die Verhältnisse im tatsächlichen polizeilichen Einsatz abbilden. Bei der Geschlechterverteilung ergab sich ein Frauenanteil von 9 Prozent, bei mindestens 7 Prozent der Teilnehmer ist eine Alkoholproblematik zu vermuten.
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.
Die Klinik für Frührehabilitation und Geriatrie, Westküstenklinikum Heide ist Bestandteil eines Kooperationsnetzwerks und wirkt am Erhalt der Mobilität und Autonomie älterer Verkehrsteilnehmer im Landkreis Dithmarschen mit. Die Zusammenarbeit mit Seniorenbeiräten, Landesverkehrswacht, Fachdiensten, Polizei-Dienststellen, Ärzten und Psychologen sowie Fahrlehrern ermöglicht eine breite Datenerfassung zum Thema ältere Kraftfahrer, insbesondere zu ihrem Unfallgeschehen.
Ziel der Untersuchung war, die Frage zu klären, inwieweit die Verwendung von fluoridhaltigen Blutentnahmesystemen einen Vorteil in Begutachtungsfragen bei Cocain-Konsumenten bringen kann. In einigen Bundesländern werden diese Blutentnahmesysteme bereits seit Jahren angewendet, um einer Zersetzung von Cocain entgegenzuwirken (Inhibition der Esterasen im abgenommenen Blut). Entsprechende Empfehlungen finden sich auch in den Richtlinien der Gesellschaft für Toxikologische und Forensische Chemie (GTFCh). Bei der Verwendung Fluorid-stabilisierter Blutentnahmesysteme fanden sich in mehr als 50 Prozent der Fälle neben dem nicht aktiven Stoffwechselprodukt Benzoylecgonin (BE) auch Cocain (ein Beleg des zeitnahen Konsums) im Blut. Seit Mitte 2007 ist neben dem Stoffwechselprodukt BE auch die Muttersubstanz Cocain im Anhang zu Paragraf 24a Straßenverkehrsgesetz (StVG) aufgeführt. Aus forensisch-toxikologischer Sicht ist die Verwendung fluorid-stabilisierter Entnahmesysteme zwingend anzuraten, da nur dann ein Nachweis der aktiven Muttersubstanz Cocain selbst ermöglicht wird.
In der Akutphase eines Rausches durch Stimulanzien sind die erwünschten Wirkungen nicht zwingend mit einer Beeinträchtigung der Fahrsicherheit in Verbindung zu bringen. Eine gesteigerte physische Leistungsfähigkeit kann sogar zumindest kurzfristig mit einer Verbesserung der Fahrleistung einhergehen. Es sind eher die unerwünschten Akutwirkungen, insbesondere aber die Nachwirkungen eines Rausches, die Einfluss auf die Fahrsicherheit nehmen können. Ziel der Untersuchung war es, Konzentrationsbereiche und verkehrsmedizinisch relevante psychophysische Auffälligkeiten von Fahrzeuglenkern zusammenzuführen und zu überprüfen, in welcher Rauschphase eine Teilnahme am Straßenverkehr erfolgt ist beziehungsweise kritisch zu sein scheint. 8.824 Fälle, bei denen eine aktive Teilnahme am Straßenverkehr erfolgt war, wurden daraufhin untersucht. Im Vergleich zu anderen (zentral dämpfenden) Substanzklassen sind bei Amphetaminen weniger psychophysische Leistungsdefizite bei der Polizei und dem Blutentnahmearzt dokumentiert, allerdings werden Personen prinzipiell sowohl in der Akutphase als auch in der nachfolgenden Ermüdungsphase auffällig. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen, dass nach dem Konsum von Amphetaminen generell keine eindeutigen Konzentrations-Wirkungsbeziehungen zu beobachten sind.
Um ein Bild von der aktuellen Messunsicherheit bei der Bestimmung von Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Serum zu erhalten, wurden von sieben forensisch-toxikologischen Laboren rechtsmedizinischer Institute Daten der letzten Jahre erhoben. Zur Abschätzung der Messunsicherheit wurde eine Einteilung in zufällige Fehler (Präzision) und systematische Fehler (Richtigkeit) vorgenommen. Ergebnisse zur Richtigkeit wurden aus Daten von Ringversuchen ermittelt. Es ergab sich eine mittlere erweiterte Messunsicherheit für die THC-Bestimmung von ca. 33 %, das heisst, bei einem Messwert von 1 ng/ml liegt der "wahre Wert" mit circa 95 prozentiger Wahrscheinlichkeit im Intervall zwischen 0,67 und 1,33 ng/ml. Dieses Ergebnis bestätigt, dass die verwendete Analytik geeignet ist, bei Konzentrationen um 1 ng/ml einen sicheren Substanznachweis zu führen. Es ist erkennbar, dass bei der THC-Bestimmung im Serum in der Regel der Richtigkeitsanteil an der Messunsicherheit größer ist als der Präzionsanteil.
Das Ziel des DRUGS-Kurses ist eine dauerhafte Distanzierung vom Drogenkonsum durch Drogenabstinenz. Der Kursteilnehmer verpflichtet sich, für die Dauer des Kurses jeglichen Drogenkonsum zu unterlassen. Während des Kurses erfolgt eine Abstinenzkontrolle durch ein forensisch verwertbares Drogenscreening. Auf die Basisstufe entfallen die ersten vier Sitzungen. Darauf folgt eine vierwöchige Selbstbeobachtungsphase, in der auch das Drogenscreening durchgeführt wird. Die in der Selbstbeobachtungsphase gemachten Erfahrungen werden in der anschließenden Aufbauphase besprochen und optimiert. Der individualpsychologische Ansatz berücksichtigt insbesondere die Psychodynamik in der Gruppe. Die Teilnehmer, welche Drogenkonsum oft mit Gruppennormen und -zwängen verbinden, können hier auch die Erfahrung machen, dass sie als Einzelne in der Lage sind, Gruppennormen mitzugestalten und sich davon, wo nötig, zu distanzieren und eine eigene Position in der Gruppe einzunehmen. Die Gruppe bietet auch das Übungsfeld für Verhaltensweisen, welche in der sozialen Gruppe außerhalb des Kurses notwendig sind.
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.
Zur Ergänzung der bestehenden Routineverfahren in der forensischen Blutalkoholanalytik wurde ein massenspektrometrisches Verfahren mit d6-Ethanol als internem Standard entwickelt. Ziel war die Anwendung eines beweissicheren Bestimmungsverfahrens, bei dem Ethanol über die Retentionszeit und Substanzeigenschaften identifiziert wird. Die Pilotstudie belegt, dass die forensische Blutalkoholbestimmung durch Anwendung eines gaschromatographischen und massenspektrometrischen Verfahrens mit Dampfraumanalyse routinemäßig möglich ist. Im Gegensatz zum GC- und ADH-Verfahren ist die massenspektrometrische Blutalkoholbestimmung beweissicher. Die Autoren empfehlen die Aufnahme in die Richtlinien zur Bestimmung der Blutalkoholkonzentration für forensische Zwecke. Die Arbeit wurde vom Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr e.V. (B.A.D.S.) unterstützt.
Es besteht Einigkeit darüber, dass Blutalkoholkonzentrationen (BAK) ab 0,30 Promille experimentell nachweisbare Beeinträchtigungen der Fahrtüchtigkeit hervorrufen. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll fundierte Aussagen über das Ausmaß und die Qualität kognitiver Veränderungen bei niedrigen BAK (um 0,30 Promille) ermöglichen. Es wurden in einer doppelblinden, placebokontrollierten Studie 16 gesunde männliche Probanden untersucht. Die BAK wurden während der Versuche auf etwa 0,30 Promille eingestellt. Es wurden mittels umfangreicher neuropsychologischer Tests untersucht: das allgemeine Intelligenzniveau, subjektive Beeinträchtigungen, mögliche depressive Symptome, die allgemeine Leistungsfähigkeit, die Vigilanz, die geteilte Aufmerksamkeit, die Reaktionszeit und die Gedächtnisleistungen. Die biostatistische Auswertung erfolgte im 2-Perioden-Crossover-Design. Zusammenfassend zeigen die vorliegenden Ergebnisse, dass bereits bei BAK von etwa 0,30 Promille vor allem kognitive Funktionen, die insbesondere auf die Wahrnehmung und die Verarbeitung visueller Informationen angewiesen sind, vor allem je komplexer und zeitkritischer eine Aufgabe wird, wie etwa die Beherrschung einer kritischen Situation im Straßenverkehr, relevant beeinträchtigt sind.
Verkehrspsychologische Nachschulungen stellen Maßnahmen zur Rehabilitierung von im Straßenverkehr auffälligen Kraftfahrerlnnen dar. Diese gesetzlich verankerten psychologischen lnterventionsprogramme werden mit hohem Aufwand konzipiert und sind bei der täglichen Durchführung mit beträchtlichen Kosten verbunden. Daraus ergibt sich die Notwendigkeit, die Effektivität der Nachschulungsmodelle durch eine wissenschaftliche Evaluation zu klären. Um die Effektivität der Nachschulungskurse der AAP (Austrian Applied Psychology) zu überprüfen wurde eine Fragebogenstudie mit Pre-Posttest-Designs durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Alkoholkurse zeigen positive Auswirkungen hinsichtlich Einstellungsänderung, spezifischer Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung, interner Attributionen, Wissen und Gesamtbeurteilung.
Ziel der durchgeführten Untersuchungen war die Analyse der Straßenverkehrsdelikte im Wiederholungsfall unter Alkoholeinfluss. Im Untersuchungszeitraum wurden 29.939 Polizeiprotokolle aus Vorpommern und Süd-Mecklenburg ausgewertet. Für den Zeitraum 1998 - 2002 fanden sich 11 Prozent Mehrfachdelikte. Mit circa 98 Prozent Beteiligung sind Männer die am häufigsten als Mehrfachdelinquenten auftretende Gruppe. Im Vergleich mit anderen Jahrgängen sind Täter im Alter von 18 - 25 Jahren auffallend häufig vertreten. Die festgestellten Blutalkoholkonzentrationen in Kombination mit einer Straftat im Straßenverkehr bleiben über die einzelnen Jahre des Erhebungszeitraumes hinweg konstant im Bereich der absoluten Fahruntauglichkeit bei einem Mittelwert von 1,85 Promille. Die Blutalkoholkonzentrationen der Rückfalltäter steigen mit zunehmendem Alter. Mit dem Anstieg der Blutalkoholkonzentration steigt auch die Deliktschwere. Circa 38 Prozent der Rückfalltaten im Straßenverkehrsbereich wurden mit einer Blutalkoholkonzentration über 2,0 Promille begangen. Dabei ist der Anteil derjenigen gering, die alkoholisiert am Straßenverkehr teilnehmen und dann allein einen Unfall verursachen (11,2 Prozent). Die meisten Wiederholungstäter fielen zweimal auf, die häufigste Anzahl war 13 bei einer Person.
Seit einigen Jahren steht mit dem pupillographischen Schläfrigkeitstest (PST) ein objektives Messverfahren zur Ermittlung der Tagesschläfrigkeit zur Verfügung, wobei die Zunahme der spontanen Schwankungen des Pupillendurchmessers unter Müdigkeit registriert wird. Es wurde eingesetzt bei verschiedenen Probandengruppen, die einem potenziell erhöhten Risiko von Vigilanzminderungen ausgesetzt sind: chronische Schmerzpatienten (n = 20) beziehungsweise substituierte Heroinabhängige (n = 52) unter Opioiden, ambulante Patienten unter Psychopharmaka (n = 32), Allergiker unter Antihistaminika (n = 40) und medizinisches Nachtdienst-Pflegepersonal (n = 40). Verglichen wurde unter anderem mit zwei Kontrollgruppen (n = 21, n = 10). Bei den Untersuchungen ergaben sich relativ normale Schläfrigkeitswerte bei ambulanten Psychopharmaka-Patienten und Allergikern. Teils exzessiv erhöhte Werte wurden dagegen insbesondere bei substituierten Heroinabhängigen (81 Prozent), opiatversorgten Schmerzpatienten (59 Prozent) und dem Nachtdienstpersonal (70 Prozent) festgestellt.
Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Studie zeigen, dass Patienten mit einer unbehandelten Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit/Hyperaktivitätsstörung in verstärktem Maße verkehrsrechtlich auffällig werden und sowohl häufiger Unfälle verursachen als auch Ordnungswidrigkeiten begehen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen weiterhin, dass sich eine medikamentöse Behandlung günstig auf die verkehrsrelevanten Leistungsfunktionen auswirkt und dadurch auch die Grundvoraussetzungen für eine verbesserte Fahrtüchtigkeit und Fahreignung ermöglicht.
Die Begutachtung der Fahreignung beinhaltet in Deutschland neben einer medizinischen Untersuchung und einer psychologischen Exploration gegebenenfalls auch die Anwendung anlassbezogener verhaltenswissenschaftlicher/psychologischer Testverfahren. Diese stellen keine isolierte Maßnahme dar, sondern sind Bestandteil eines Begutachtungsprozesses. Dabei stellt der sachgerechte Gebrauch von so genannten Grenzwerten unter Berücksichtigung der Einzelfallgerechtigkeit und der Einhaltung des Grundsatzes der Verhältnismäßigkeit eine unabdingbare Voraussetzung dar. Testwerte sind nicht absolut, sondern relativ und üben von daher einen eher geringen Einfluss auf das Gutachtenergebnis in Bezug auf eine Prognose des Verkehrsverhaltens aus. Im Bereich des Verkehrsverhaltens kommt es nicht entscheidend darauf an, ob eine im Milli- oder Nanobereich exakte Messgenauigkeit erreicht wird, sondern wie die verkehrsmedizinischen, verkehrspsychologischen, technischen und anderen Sachverständigen mit dem Messwert fachlich umgehen. So müssen im Bereich der Begutachtung der Fahreignung tätige psychologische und medizinische Sachverständige in der Lage sein, Befunde im Einzelfall fehler-, mangel- sowie widerspruchsfrei zu interpretieren. Dies beinhaltet auch, sich mit den Ergebnissen eines psychologischen Testverfahrens fach- und sachgerecht auseinanderzusetzen, nach Kompensationsmöglichkeiten zu suchen und gegebenenfalls eine psychologische Fahrverhaltensbeobachtung durchzuführen. Bei grenzwertigen Vorgaben handelt es sich nicht um "Cut-Offs", sondern um "kritische Grenzwerte", die im Zusammenhang mit mehreren anderen Faktoren zu werten sind.
Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Studie zeigen, dass die Art, wie ein Fahrer mit Belastungen im Straßenverkehr umgeht, in Zusammenhang steht mit seinem Fahrstil und den Fahrfehlern, die er macht. Dabei zeigt sich, dass insbesondere ein konfrontativer Bewältigungsstil die Konfliktneigung im Straßenverkehr erhöht und dass diese Fahrer nicht nur andere belasten, sondern dass dieser Bewältigungsstil auch dazu führt, dass diese Fahrer selbst mehr Stress und Belastungen erleben.
Mit der Gründung des Bundesamtes für Strassen (ASTRA) im Jahr 1998 wurde ein wichtiges Signal gesetzt, das den Weg hin zu einer einheitlichen Vorgehensweise im Bereich der verkehrsmedizinischen Begutachtung in der Schweiz belebte. Der im Jahr 2000 veröffentlichte Leitfaden über die Verdachtsgründe der fehlenden Fahreignung, das In-Kraft-Treten des neues Straßenverkehrsgesetzes am 01.10.2005 (mit dem Herabsetzen der verkehrsrelevanten Alkoholpromillegrenze von 0,8 Promille auf 0,5 Promille, der Einführung einer Nulltoleranz für bestimmte Drogen, der Verschärfung der Administrativmaßnahmen und der strafrechtlichen Sanktionen sowie der anlassfreien Alkoholkontrolle als generalpräventiver Maßnahme) und die Veröffentlichung des Handbuchs der verkehrsmedizinischen Begutachtung durch die Arbeitsgruppe Verkehrsmedizin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Rechtsmedizin im Jahr 2005, waren wichtige Meilensteine auf dem Weg zu einer einheitlichen Vorgehensweise im Bereich der verkehrsmedizinischen Begutachtung in der Schweiz.
Aus der Zusammenschau der gegenwärtigen Studienliteratur sowie den Ergebnissen der vorliegenden Untersuchung lässt sich ableiten, dass die Fahrtüchtigkeit eines unter Reboxetin oder Mirtazapin zum Teil remittierten Patienten als günstiger einzuschätzen ist als die eines unbehandelten depressiven Patienten. Die Bewertung eines Antidepressivums kann, wie die vorliegenden Ergebnisse zeigen, nicht vorrangig auf Basis der sedierenden Eigenschaften eines Präparats vorgenommen werden. Die experimentellen Daten belegen, dass neben der Verordnungsdauer und den damit zu erwartenden Adaptationsmechanismen auch der Einnahmezeitpunkt entscheidend bei der Bewertung der Substanz in Bezug auf die Verkehrssicherheit ist. Die vorliegenden Ergebnisse haben darüber hinaus wichtige Implikationen für die Einschätzung des Risikopotenzials neuerer selektiver Antidepressiva im Rahmen gesetzlicher Verordnungen. Bei der Bewertung des Gefährdungspotenzials dieser Substanzgruppe scheinen weit weniger die pharmakologischen Effekte als vielmehr morbogene Faktoren zu berücksichtigen zu sein. Die meisten der derzeit erhältlichen Antidepressiva sind weitgehend vergleichbar in Bezug auf ihre therapeutische Effektivität, sodass bei der Auswahl der Medikamente in erster Linie das Nebenwirkungsprofil ausschlaggebend ist.
Das Führen von Kraftfahrzeugen der Klasse 2 ist entsprechend der Fahrerlaubnisverordnung nach mehr als zwei epileptischen Anfällen ausgeschlossen. Als Ausnahme gilt eine durch ärztliche Kontrolle nachgewiesene fünfjährige Anfallsfreiheit ohne antiepileptische Behandlung. Im vorliegenden Fall wies ein Lkw-Fahrer mindestens vier epileptische Anfälle auf, eine fünfjaehrige Anfallsfreiheit ohne Medikamente unter ärztlicher Kontrolle ließ sich nicht feststellen. Der letzte Anfall führte zu einem Verkehrsunfall mit anschließendem Gerichtsverfahren. Ursächlich für den Unfall war am ehesten die abgesetzte Medikation. Ein Verfahren hinsichtlich der Ungeeignetheit zum Führen von Kraftfahrzeugen der Klasse 2 wurde eingeleitet.
Das Fehlen der Fahreignung stellt im Sinne der ICF eine Barriere bei der Teilhabe am Arbeitsleben dar. Die dargestellten Ergebnisse zeigen auf, dass weiterer Forschungsbedarf zum Thema Fahreignung und Therapie besteht, um den Patienten die Aussicht auf eine berufliche Reintegration zu bewahren. Durch ein effektives Training der Fähigkeiten zum Führen eines Kraftwagens könnten bei einem relevanten Anteil der Patienten die Voraussetzungen zur Teilhabe am Arbeitsleben stark verbessert werden. Durch die Präsentation dieser Ergebnisse kann eine Verbesserung des Problembewusstseins erwartet werden, da immer noch nicht alle Patienten über mögliche Einschränkungen der Fahreignung aufgeklärt werden. Daneben muss dem Fachpublikum die Notwendigkeit aufgezeigt werden, über neue Rehabilitationsstrategien zur Wiedererlangung beziehungsweise Verbesserung der Fahreignung nachzudenken.
An der Fortbildungsakademie der Ärztekammer Nordrhein werden in einem 16-Stunden-Kurs Qualifizierungen zum Fachgutachter/zur Fachgutachterin für verkehrsmedizinische Begutachtung in Kooperation mit unterschiedlichen Fachreferenten aus den verschiedenen klinischen Bereichen durchgeführt. Leistungskontrollen zum Kursinhalt, ein intensives Arbeiten an Fallbeispielen oder gar eine fachliche Begleitung der ersten Gutachten sind nicht generell vorgegeben, wenngleich in Evaluationen zum Kurs insbesondere eine fallorientierte Ausbildung und eine Supervision zumindest in ersten eigenen Begutachtungen von den Teilnehmern/Teilnehmerinnen gewünscht werden. Auf der Grundlage der Erfahrungen der Autoren mit der Leitung/Moderation der entsprechenden Fachfortbildungen der Ärztekammer Nordrhein wurden das bestehende Curriculum kritisch diskutiert und Anregungen zur Umstrukturierung erarbeitet, die im Einzelnen vorgestellt werden. Dabei handelt es sich um ein Konzept auf der Basis des "blended learning": Via Internet wird vertiefendes Lehrmaterial für die verschiedenen Fachbereiche der medizinischen Begutachtung unter verkehrsmedizinischen Fragestellungen zur Bearbeitung angeboten. Die Bearbeitung selbst kann online kontrolliert und bei Bedarf auch mit Lerninhaltsüberpruefungen verknüpft werden. Zusätzlich können Fallbeispiele anonymisiert vorgelegt und mit tatsächlich ausgesprochenen Begutachtungen bereitgestellt werden. Weiterhin wird eine qualifizierte Begleitung zumindest zu Beginn der Gutachtertätigkeit angeregt.
HORN stellt in ihrem Eingangsreferat den "Neuen Bundesverkehrswegeplan und die SUP in der Verkehrswegeplanung" vor. Das zentrale Element des in der Regel auf 10 bis 15 Jahre angelegten Plans ist die aus europäischen Vorgaben abgeleitete Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung. Diese erfordert bei der Erstellung des Bundesverkehrswegeplans einen kontinuierlichen Kommunikationsprozess. Zugleich betonte HORN die starke Unterfinanzierung des aktuellen Plans. Der Erhaltung der vorhandenen Verkehrsinfrastruktur komme in den Bereichen Straße, Schiene und Wasser der Vorrang vor Neubauten zu. FEHLING plädiert in seinem Beitrag "Die Straße im Kontext des öffentlichen Personennahverkehrs" für eine nahverkehrsfreundliche Planung und Gestaltung des Straßenraums. Die Planungen verschiedener Verkehrsträger und Planungsebenen müssten aufeinander aber auch mit straßenverkehrsrechtlichen Anordnungen abgestimmt werden. Die entsprechende Koordination sei allerdings verbesserungsbedürftig. Namentlich die Vernetzung der Nahverkehrsplanung mit anderen Planungsebenen müsse ausgebaut werden. KUGELE berichtet in seinem Beitrag "Selbstfinanzierte Straßen" für eine längerfristige Verlässlichkeit der Verkehrsfinanzierung. Gegenwärtig fließe nur etwa die Hälfte der Abgaben aus dem Verkehr dem Gesamtverkehrssystem auch wieder zu. Diese Mittel müssten gesteigert und längerfristig für den Verkehr verfügbar gemacht werden, etwa durch längerfristige Leistungs- und Finanzierungsvereinbarungen oder durch Sondervermögen. Der abschließende Beitrag "Das neue Vergaberecht" von SIEGEL behandelt drei neue EU-Vergaberichtlinien, die am 17.04.2014 in Kraft getreten und nun binnen zweier Jahre umzusetzen sind. Nach dem neuen Recht können künftig ökologische und soziale Kriterien verstärkt eine Rolle bei der Vergabe von öffentlichen Aufträgen spielen. Diese neuen Richtlinien vergrößern indes die Nachweispflichten und den bürokratischen Aufwand. Neben das Kriterium des "wirtschaftlich günstigsten Angebots" zählt zudem nunmehr auch das beste Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis.
The current paper reports on the results of a pilot study aiming to investigate the effect of mobile telephone use on the driving performance of 5 amateur and 5 professional drivers. Their driving acuity was tested through a driving simulator. Analysis and interpretation of the results occurred comparing the drivers' driving performance while talking, reading messages and writing a message on the mobile phone (intervention time) with the drivers' driving performance engaged in no activity (control time). The variables affected by the mobile phone were the "steering", the "lane offset" and the "duration of lane offset". Moreover, the drivers involved in a car crash in the last five years appeared to differ from those who were not involved in a crash in both "lane offset" and "following distance". The results of this pilot study will inform the design of a large experimental study on 50 professional and 50 amateur drivers.
Although the annual traffic accident statistics published by the national police is available in public, the detailed traffic accident data has not been released in Korea. Recently the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recognized the importance of in-depth accident data to enhance road traffic safety and initiated a research project to establish a collection of the detailed accident data. The main objective of the project is a feasibility study to establish KIDAS (Korea In-Depth Accident Study). Within this project, three university hospitals which are located in mid-size cities have been selected to collect accident data. Annually, more than 500 cases of accidents have been collected from the in-patient's interviews and diagnosis. Unlike GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study), currently on-site investigation can"t be performed by the Korean police. The only available data is patient medical records, patient's description of accident circumstances and the damaged vehicle. Occasionally the police provide the accident investigation reports containing very brief information on accident causation and vehicle safety. In a first step, the concept of KIDAS is to adopt the format of iGLAD (Initiative for the Global Harmonization of Accident Data) for harmonization. Since the currently collected accident information is extremely limited compared with GIDAS, the other sources of data and calculations such as KNCAP vehicle data, pc-crash simulations, vehicle registration information, insurance company data are utilized to complete the iGLAD template. Results from KIDAS_iGLAD and the cases of assessment of active safety devices such as AEBS, ESC, and LDWS will be evaluated.
Road accidents are typically analyzed to address influences of human, vehicle, and environmental (primarily infrastructure) factors. A new methodology, based on a "Venn diagram" analysis, gives a broader perspective on the probable factors, and combinations of factors, contributing both to the occurrence of a crash and to sustaining injuries in that crash. The methodology was applied to 214 accidents on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Factors contributing to accidents and injuries were addressed. The major human factors influencing accidents on this roadway were speeding (30%) and falling asleep (29%), while injuries were primarily due to lack of seat belt use (46%). The leading infrastructure factor for injuries was impact with a roadside manmade structure (28%), and the main vehicle factor for injuries was passenger compartment intrusion (73%). This methodology can help identify effective vehicle and infrastructure-related solutions for preventing accidents and mitigating injuries in India.
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.
Ruptures and dissections of the thoracic and abdominal aortic vessel caused by traffic accidents are rare but potentially life-threatening injuries. They can occur by blunt trauma via seat belt or dashboard injury. The study aimed at evaluating the overall mortality, morbidity, neurological disorders, and differences in operative procedures of open repair and stenting. It shows that, with a change and improvement in diagnostic tools and surgical approach, mortality and morbidity of blunt aortic injuries were significantly reduced. Still an immediate life-threatening injury early diagnosis via multiple-slice and scans and surgical repair with minimally invasive stents showed excellent short-time results for selected patients.
Assessment of the effectiveness of Intersection Assistance Systems at urban and rural accident sites
(2015)
An Intersection Collision Avoidance System is a promising safety system for accident avoidance or injury mitigation at junctions. However, there is still a lack of evidence of the effectiveness, due to the missing real accident data concerning Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. The objective of this study is the assessment of the effectiveness of an Intersection Collision Avoidance System based on real accidents. The method used is called virtual pre-crash simulation. Accidents at junctions were reconstructed by using the numerical simulation software PC-Crashâ„¢. This first simulation is called the baseline simulation. In a second step the vehicles of these accidents were equipped with an Intersection Collision Avoidance System and simulated again. The second simulation is called the system simulation. In the system simulation two different sensors and four different intervention strategies were used, based on a time-to-collision approach. The effectiveness of Intersection Collision Avoidance System has been evaluated by using an assessment function. On average 9% of the reviewed junction accidents could have been avoided within the system simulations. The other simulation results clearly showed a change in the principal direction of force, delta-v and reduction of the injury severity.
The main focus of the benefit estimation of advanced safety systems with a warning interface by simulation is on the driver. The driver is the only link between the algorithm of the safety system and the vehicle, which makes the setup of a driver model for such simulations very important. This paper describes an approach for the use of a statistical driver model in simulation. It also gives an outlook on further work on this topic. The build-up process of the model suffices with a distribution of reaction times and a distribution of reaction intensities. Both were combined in different scenarios for every driver. Each scenario has then a specific probability to occur. To use the statistical driver model, every accident scene has to be simulated with each driver scenario (combinations of reaction times and intensities). The results of the simulations are then combined regarding the probabilities to occur, which leads to an overall estimated benefit of the specific system. The model works with one or more equipped participants and delivers a range for the benefit of advanced safety systems with warning interfaces.
Event data recorders (EDRs) are a valuable tool for in-depth investigation of traffic accidents. EDRs are installed on the airbag control module (ACM) to record vehicle and occupant information before, during, and after a crash event. This study evaluates EDR characteristics and aims at better understanding EDR performance for the improvement of accident reconstruction with more reliable and accurate information regarding accidents. The analysis is based on six crash tests with corresponding EDR datasets.
The study aimed at estimating the impact of pedelecs (with an assumed higher speed than bicycles) on the traffic accident severity in Germany for different penetration rates. The analysis shows that in many real situations (68%) an electrical support of bicycles has no influence on the sequence of accident events. Taking into account a number of unreported "single bicycle accidents", the adoption of similar traffic behavior and similar age distribution, the authors determined a shift of 400 former slightly to seriously injured cyclists in Germany per year. Overall this would be an increase of approximately 2.3% in case of 10% of pedelec penetration with the pessimistic assumption of 10 km/h speed increase although first natural driving studies predict a much lower average speed increase of pedelecs. The hypothesis verbalized in the initial question whether a higher distribution of pedelecs will result in more severe accidents in Germany is not verified. The study shows that electrical support didn"t result in higher collision speed in general. In many accident situations, the speed of pedelecs has only a minor influence on the accident severity. Further research focusing on a possible change of driver behavior especially in new target groups (elderly people) will be needed.
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.
In North America, frontal crash tests in both the regulatory environment and consumer-based safety rating schemes have historically been based on full-width and moderate-overlap (40%) vehicle to barrier impacts. The combination of improved seat-belt technologies, notably belt tensioning and load limiting systems, together with advanced airbags, has proven very effective in providing occupant protection in these crash modes. Recently, however, concern has been raised over the contribution of narrower frontal impacts, involving primarily the vehicle corners, to the incidence of fatality and serious injury as a result of the potential for increased occupant compartment intrusion and performance limitations of current restraint systems. Drawing on data documented in the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS)/ Crashworthiness Data System (CDS) for calendar years 1999 to 2012, the present study examines the characteristics of existing and proposed corner crash test configurations, and the nature of real-world collisions that approximate the test environments. In this analysis, particular emphasis is placed on crash pulse information extracted from vehicle-based event data recorders (EDR's).
Analysis of pedestrian leg contacts and distribution of contact points across the vehicle front
(2015)
Determining the risk to pedestrians that are impacted by areas of the front bumper not currently regulated in type-approval testing requires an understanding of the target population and the injury risk posed by the edges of the bumper. National statistics show that approximately 10% of all accident casualties are pedestrians, with 20% to 30% of these pedestrian casualties being killed or seriously injured. However, the contact position across the front of the bumper is not recorded in national statistics and so in-depth accident databases (OTS, UK and GIDAS, Germany) were used to examine injury risk in greater detail. The results showed that some injury types and severities of injuries appear to peak around the bumper edges. Although there are sometimes inconsistencies in the data, generally there is no evidence to suggest that the edges of the bumper are less likely to be contacted or cause injury.
Many safety-relevant tasks in control or diagnostics require binary choices such as "conflict versus separation" in air traffic control, "normal versus pathological" when interpreting x-ray pictures, or "permitted versus forbidden" when inspecting airport security scans. Deciders often are uncertain, but nevertheless required to decide between two alternatives, that is, they have not only to decide upon an action, but also about the admissible level of uncertainty. If the accepted level of judgment certainty is not taken into account, the sequence of decisions does not capture the full picture of the underlying decision process. Differences in judgment certainty are relevant, because they reflect not only the adequacy of the human-machine interface that is evaluated, but also the differences in expertise of the decider and the requirements of the actual situation or task. Therefore, capturing both judgment certainty and discrimination performance is essential. A comparison of different human-machine-interfaces (for air traffic control) is used to illustrate a methodological approach, which allows for integrated analyses of decision processes based on receiver-operator-characteristics and practical guidelines for the evaluation of human-machine-interfaces for safety-relevant operation procedures are provided.
Detailed anthropometric data of pregnant women have been collected and used in the development of a computational model of the pregnant occupant model "Expecting". The model is complete with a finite element uterus and multi-body fetus, which is a novel feature in the models of this kind. The computational pregnant occupant model has been validated and used to simulate a range of impacts. The strains developed in the utero-placental interface are used as the main criteria for fetus safety. Stress distributions due to inertial loading of the fetus on the utero-placental interface play a role on the strain levels. Inclusion of fetus model is shown to significantly affect the strain levels in the utero-placental interface. This series of studies has led to the design of seatbelt features specifically for the pregnant women to enable them use the seatbelt correctly and comfortably.
SEEKING is looking for answers regarding electric powered bicycles and their relation to traffic safety issues. Does a cyclist need "E"? Is it as risky as riding a moped or are E-bikes creating conflicts with other cyclists? The project described herein, funded by the Austrian Ministry of Transport, has the aim of seeking answers to these hot topics. The SEEKING-team shows an in-depth investigation of vehicle dynamic sensing, together with subjective feedback of test riders to detect similarities and differences between conventional cycling and E-biking. Following an overview on the international status quo, measurement runs and their analyses are performed to find a set of preventative measures to make (E-)biking safer. A specific focus is the detection of curve handling, stopping and acceleration phases as well as conflict studies on course-based test rides and "real world" tests on cycling paths (naturalistic riding).
Im von der DG Home (CIPS Program) geförderten Projekt "SecMan " Security Manual for Road Infrastructures" wurde ein vierstufiges Verfahren zur Identifikation kritischer Straßeninfrastrukturen, ihre Bewertung hinsichtlich diverser von Menschen verursachter Gefahren sowie die Bestimmung effektiver Schutzmaßnahmen entwickelt. Diese Ergebnisse wurden in einem ganzheitlichen "best-practice" Handbuch zusammen getragen, welches einen trans-nationalen Sicherheitsmanagement-Ansatz für Betreiber und Eigentümer von Straßeninfrastrukturen in Europa ermöglicht. Im Folgenden wird die entwickelte Methodik vorgestellt, ausgehend von der Bewertung der Netzkritikalität über die Attraktivität und Vulnerabilität eines Bauwerks hin zu einer Bewertungsmethodik für die Auswahl geeigneter Schutzmaßnahmen.
Um die Sicherheit der Straßentunnel zu gewährleisten, werden mehr als 400 m lange Tunnel ständig durch eine Tunnelleitzentrale überwacht. Die dort eingehende Flut von Einzelinformationen, wie Kamerabilder und zahlreiche Sensordaten, muss permanent durch das Personal erfasst und beurteilt werden. Das Projekt ESIMAS (Echtzeit-Sicherheits-Management-System für Straßentunnel) wird neue Wege aufzeigen, um die Leitstellenmitarbeiter zu unterstützen. Auf Grundlage der Datenanalyse und -bewertung von ESIMAS können zukünftig sicherheitsrelevante Ereignisse, wie ein Brand im Tunnel, zuverlässig und rechtzeitig erkannt werden. Im Ernstfall soll ESIMAS dem Leitzentralenpersonal sowie den Einsatz- und Rettungsdiensten Handlungsempfehlungen zur Ereignisbewältigung zur Verfügung stellen. Auf Basis dieser Handlungsempfehlungen können Maßnahmen schnellstmöglich und gezielt durchgeführt werden. Der innovative Ansatz von ESIMAS besteht in der ganzheitlichen Betrachtung aller Einzelinformationen und ihrer automatischen Auswertung und Bewertung. Hierdurch ist eine schnellere Reaktion der Leitstelle zum Schutz der Verkehrsteilnehmer möglich.
Radfahren - aber sicher!
(1989)
Bei der Veranstaltung, die am 16. und 17. November 1987 zu dem Thema "Radfahren - aber sicher!" in Wiesbaden stattfand, ging es darum, dem Sicherheitsbedürfnis des zunehmenden Radfahrverkehrs in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gerecht zu werden, andererseits aber auch das nicht unproblematische Verhältnis zwischen der Radfahrerpopulation auf der einen und den übrigen Verkehrsteilnehmergruppen auf der anderen Seite auszuleuchten. In der jüngeren Vergangenheit wurden Klagen geäußert wie etwa die, dass sich die Radfahrer ihr eigenes Gesetz schafften. Von den Betroffenen wird dagegengehalten, dass die den Straßenverkehr betreffenden Gesetze und Verordnungen aus dem Blickwinkel des Kraftfahrers heraus gemacht worden seien und ein Verstoß dagegen für Radfahrer oft die naheliegendste Möglichkeit sei, einer Selbstgefährdung zu entgehen. Aus diesem Grunde wurde die Thematik in dem von der Deutschen Verkehrswacht gemeinsam mit der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) und dem Bundesverkehrsministerium durchgeführten Symposium aus unterschiedlichster Sicht angesprochen. Vertreten war sowohl die Unfallforschung, die Straßenplanung, die Fahrzeugtechnik und die Polizei wie auch die Interessenvertreter der Rad- und der Autofahrer. Von vornherein war klar, dass ein Symposium dieser Art nicht dazu angetan sein konnte, "Patentlösungen" zu erarbeiten. Ziel der Veranstaltung war es vielmehr, das gegenseitige Verständnis der unterschiedlichen Verkehrsteilnehmergruppen füreinander zu wecken bzw. zu fördern. Dabei wurde deutlich, dass auch die Problematik des "Rollenwechsels" keineswegs frei von Schwierigkeiten ist: Das Verhalten des möglicherweise überwiegenden Teils der Verkehrsteilnehmer ist nicht so sehr an einem Grundwissen und ein Grundverhalten gebunden, als vielmehr von der Art der jeweiligen Verkehrsteilnahme abhängig.
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.
Cycling supports the independence and health of the aging population. However, elderly cyclists have an increased injury risk. The majority of injured cyclists is victim of a single-sided accident, an accident in which there is no other party involved. The aim of the project "Safe and Aware on the bicycle" is to develop guidelines for an advisory system that is useful in preventing single-sided accidents. This system is able to support the elderly cyclist; enabling the cyclist to timely adapt his cycling behaviour and improve cycling safety and comfort. For the development of such advisory system the causes of singles accidents and the wishes of the elderly cyclist must be known. First step to obtain this insight was a literature survey and an GIDAS research. Unfortunately accidentology research with GIDAS did not give the full understanding of the pre-crash situations and (especially the behaviour related) factors leading to the accident. The second step was consultation of elderly cyclist through a questionnaire (n=800), in-depth interviews (n=12) and focus group sessions (n=15). This offered complementary information and a much better understanding of the behavioural aspects. Results concern the behaviour in traffic and identify specific physical (i.e. problems looking backwards over the shoulder) and mental issues. Furthermore, the needs and wishes for support in specific cycling situations were identified. In conclusion; The GIDAS results together with the information obtained contacting the elderly cyclists enabled setting up requirements for an advisory system, which is useful in preventing single-sided accidents.
Since a number of human models have been developed it appears sensible to use these models also in the accident analysis. Especially the understanding of injury mechanisms and probably even injury risk curves can be significantly improved when interesting accidents are reconstructed using human body models. However, an important limitation for utilising human models for accident reconstruction is the effort needed to develop detailed FE models of the accident partners or to prepare the human model reconstruction by running physical accident reconstructions. The proposed approach for using human models for accident reconstruction is to use simplified and parametric car models. These models can be adapted to the crash opponents in a fast and cost effective way. Although, accuracy is less compared to detailed FE models, the relevant change in velocity can be simulated well, indicating that the computation of a detailed crash pulse is not needed. Two frontal impact test accidents that were reconstructed experimentally and using the parametric car models are indicating sufficient correlation of the adapted parametric car models with the full scale crash reconstructions. However, further developments of the parametric models to be capable for the use in lateral impacts and rear impacts are needed. For the PC Crash simulation runs the output sampling rate is too large to allow sufficient analysis. In addition the performance appears to be too general.
This study aimed at developing an injury estimation algorithm for AACN technologies for Germany and compared them to findings based on Japanese data. The data to build and to verify the algorithm was obtained from the German in-depth Accident Database (GIDAS) and split into a training and a validation dataset. Significant input variables and the generalized linear regression model to predict severe injuries (ISS>15) were selected to maximize area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Probit regression with the input parameter multiple impact, delta v, seatbelt use and impact direction gave the largest AUC of 0.91. Sensitivity of the algorithm was validated at 90% and specificity at 76% for an injury risk threshold of 2%. It appears that no major differences between Japan and Germany exist for injury estimation based on delta v and impact direction. However, far side impact and multiple crash events appear to be associated with a larger risk increase in the German data.
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.
Pedestrians represent about 20% of the overall fatalities in Europe- road traffic accidents. In this paper a methodology is proposed to understand why the numbers are so high, especially in the south of Europe and particularly in Portugal, . First a detailed statistical analysis using Ordinal Logistic Regression model (OLR) was applied to the gathered data from all Portuguese accidents with victims in the period 2010-2012. In a second stage accident reconstruction computational techniques using pedestrian biomechanical models are used to evaluate the accident conditions that lead to the injuries, such as the speed and the impact location. For biomechanical injury criterions, the AIS (Abbreviated Injury Scale), the HIC (Head Injury Criterion) and other injury criterions based on the resulting accelerations in the pedestrian's body are used. The statistical model reported that there were several predictors that significantly influenced the pedestrian injury severity in the event of a road accident, such as Pedestrian's age, Pedestrian's gender, Vehicle Design/Category or Driver's gender. The use of injury scales and biomechanical criterions in in-depth investigation of road accidents, such as AIS, can significantly improve the quality of the reconstruction process.
The current Brussels EU Regulation No. 1235/2011, valid from May 30, 2012, has introduced an European Tyre Label with wet grip index G classes from A to G for passenger car tyres C1, light commercial vehicles tyres C2 and heavy truck- and bus tyres C3. Every wet grip class for each vehicle category has a defined band of numerical values for the wet grip index G. The legislated wet grip values G in this EU- Regulation are very low. The measured braking distances and corresponding impact speeds of the test vehicles are showing very critical results. Regulation No. 1235/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council for Type Approval of Vehicles (EU) should be changed in such a way, that for C1-tyres (normal passenger cars tyres) the minimum wet grip index G is 1.25. All C2-tyres (light commercial vehicles tyres) should at least meet a minimum wet grip index of G = 1.1. All C3-tyres (heavy trucks and buses tyres) should at least meet a minimum wet grip index of G = 0.95. Due to the missing lower limits for G in the wet grip class F for C1, C2 and C3 tyres according to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1235/2011, officially valid from 30 May 2012, a tyre-to-road coefficient of adhesion in the extreme of 0 (zero) is legally permitted. This is an apparent flaw in above cited EU Regulation, which causes a potential danger to the road traffic safety for all motor vehicles in Europe with such tyres. The wet grip class F has to be removed urgently from said EURegulation, since a direct liability of the responsible EU-Commission can not be excluded.
The declining trend since 1991 in the number of killed people was broken in 2011 when overall 4 009 people died in traffic accidents in Germany. The question arises if there is a stagnating trend of fatalities in Germany in future? By breaking down the accidents with casualties towards a monthly view one can see a decreasing trend of fatalities in the warmer months especially since 2009. When comparing against winter months higher deviations are observed. In December 2011 an increase of 191 traffic deaths were registered (181 in 2010 compared to 372 in 2011). Further analyses of different accident influences were evaluated and their possibility of drastic change from one year to the other was determined. As seen weather- and environmental conditions are one of the major contributing factors and are one of the causes for the increased number of fatalities. To support the underlying assumption a model had been created to calculate the number of traffic deaths on a daily basis approach. As an input, road conditions projected through weather parameters and also different driving behaviors on weekdays or holidays were used. As a result, estimates of daily fatality with up to 75% precision can be achieved out of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 data. Further on it shows that weather and street conditions have a high influence on the overall resulting number of traffic accidents with casualties, and especially to the number of fatalities. Hence it is estimated that approximately 3 300 people were killed in traffic accidents in Germany in 2013 which would be again a reduction of another 13% compared to 2012. Therefore an answer to the question will be that the decreasing trend in traffic fatalities in Germany somehow is not broken when environmental conditions are included in national statistics. Their effects will become more visible in future accident statistics and it is estimated variances of 5% to 8% of the annual number of traffic fatalities in Germany will be seen.
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.
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).
The project UR:BAN "Cognitive assistance (KA)" aims at developing future assistance systems providing improved performance in complex city traffic. New state-of-the-art panoramic sensor technologies now allow comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of the vehicle environment. In order to improve protection of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, a particular objective of UR:BAN is the evaluation and prediction of their behaviour and actions. The objective of subproject "WER" is development support by providing quantitative estimates of traffic collisions at the very start and predict potential in terms of optimized accident avoidance and reduction of injury severity. For this purpose an integrated computer simulation toolkit is being devised based on real world accidents (GIDAS as well as video documented accidents), allowing the prediction of potential effectiveness and future benefit of assistance systems in this accident scenario. Subsequently, this toolkit may be used for optimizing the design of implemented assistance systems for improved effectiveness.
The evaluation of the expected benefit of active safety systems or even ideas of future systems is challenging because this has to be done prospectively. Beside acceptance, the predicted real-world benefit of active safety systems is one of the most important and interesting measures. Therefore, appropriate methods should be used that meet the requirements concerning representativeness, robustness and accuracy. The paper presents the development of a methodology for the assessment of current and future vehicle safety systems. The variety of systems requires several tools and methods and thus, a common tool box was created. This toolbox consists of different levels, regarding different aspects like data sources, scenarios, representativeness, measures like pre-crash-simulations, automated crash computation, single-case-analyses or driving simulator studies. Finally, the benefit of the system(s) is calculated, e.g. by using injury risk functions; giving the number of avoided/mitigated accidents, the reduction of injured or killed persons or the decrease of economic costs.
India is one of the leading countries reporting highest road accidents & related injuries. TMARG (Tata Motors Accident Research Group) has been recording crashes in association with M/s. Lokamanya Medical Foundation since 2011 with M/s, Amandeep Hospitals since Aug 2013. This study has highlighted some accident types not discussed extensively in literature. Trucks to Truck impacts " Cabin interaction with overhanging loadbody structures and Offset underside impacts for passenger vehicles are seen in significant numbers. The paper discusses these in more detail including severity.
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.
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.
While it is important to track trends in the number of road accidents in different countries using national statistics, there is a need for data with more detailed information, so called in-depth accident data. For this reason, several accident data projects emerged worldwide in recent years. However, also different data standards were established and so comparative analysis of international in-depth data has been very hard to conduct, so far. This is why the project iGLAD (Initiative for the Global Harmonization of Accident Data) was established and created the prerequisites for building up a standardized dataset out of the common denominator of different in-depth accident databases from Europe, USA and Asia. In the first phase, the project received funding from ACEA to compile an initial database. To accomplish this, a suitable data scheme has been defined, a pilot study has been conducted as proof of concept and the recoding of the first common data base has been initiated. Also, to prepare the project for its self-supporting continuation in the next years, a business model has been developed. This paper reports the history and status of the project, the current challenges and the creation of a capable consortium to maintain the data. In mid-2014, the initial database containing 1550 cases from 10 different countries will be completed and a first detailed view on this data will be possible.
Despite the steadily declining number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in most European countries during recent decades, pedestrian protection is still of great importance in the European Union as well as in Germany. This is because they still constitute a large proportion of road user casualties and are more likely to suffer serious and fatal injuries than most other road users. In 1999 only car occupants suffered more fatal injuries than pedestrians in Germany. In December 1998, EEVC WG 17 completed their review and updating of the EEVC WG 10 pedestrian test procedure that made it possible to evaluate the protection afforded to pedestrians by the front of passenger cars in an accident. Within the scope of this procedure, four different impactors are used representing those parts of the body which are injured very often and/or very seriously in vehicle-pedestrian-collisions. In a project executed by IKA and BASt, a small family car was tested according to the EEVC WG 17 test procedure. Afterwards modifications to the car were carried out in order to improve the pedestrian protection provided by the vehicle design. There were certain restrictions placed on the level of modifications undertaken, e.g. only minor modifications to vehicle styling and to the vehicle structures, which provide passenger protection. The redesigned vehicle was tested again using the WG 17 test procedure. The test results of the modified vehicle were compared with those of the standard vehicle and evaluated. The results show that considered measures for pedestrian protection in many areas of the vehicle front structure and the use of innovative techniques can lead to a significant reduction of the loads of pedestrians at an acceptable expense.
T. DÜNCHHEIM erörtert in seinem Einführungsvortrag zu "Die Stellung der Gemeinden im Straßenrecht" die kommunalen Gestaltungsspielräume hinsichtlich ihres Satzungsrechts, das sich auf -§ 19 StrWG NRW stützen lässt. Er schildert die Auswirkungen dieser Gestaltung auf das Straßen- und Straßenverkehrsrecht, die letztlich Ausfluss der gemeindlichen Selbstverwaltungsgarantie sind. Dabei problematisiert er die Abgrenzung zwischen straßenrechtlichem Gemeingebrauch und Sondernutzung sowie die Bedeutung der rechtlichen Ausgestaltung des Straßen- und Straßenverkehrsrechts. Hierbei wird die Anwendung des -§ 45 StVO durch die Gemeinden einer kritischen Analyse unterzogen. A. NETTER schildert in seinem Beitrag "Aktuelle Rechtsfragen der Ortsdurchfahrten" die Gremienstruktur im Straßenwesen und den Einfluss des Europarechts, des Bundes- und Landesstraßenrechts sowie den Ortsdurchfahrtenrichtlinien auf das Straßenwesen. Er stellt dabei die Folgen der Aufhebung der Radwegbenutzungspflicht sowie die aus der Straßenbaulast folgende Entwässerungsverpflichtung der Straßenbaulastträger und ihre Umsetzung in den Gemeinden dar. U. WEGNER berichtet in ihrem Beitrag "Aktuelle Entwicklungen des Verbandsklagerechts" über die Auswirkungen europäischer Richtlinien auf das Umweltrecht. In diesem Zusammenhang wird eine wegweisende Entscheidung des BVerwG erörtert, welche die direkte Anwendung des Art. 9 Abs. 3 AK zum Gegenstand hat. Trotz der Einführung einer bundesrechtlichen Verbandsklage in -§ 64 BNatSchG sei das Problem der Wahrung von Allgemeininteressen nicht gelöst, da diese Norm die Interessen des Umweltschutzes nicht hinreichend zu schützen vermöge. Der Beitrag "Inanspruchnahme öffentlicher Wege durch TK-Unternehmen" von U. STELKENS, stellt eine differenzierte Auseinandersetzung mit dem TKG-Wegerecht dar. Er konstatiert, dass die Bestimmungen des TKG im Wesentlichen auf den Normen des Telegraphenwegegesetz (TWG) basieren. Daher bestehen Spannungsverhältnisse und Reibungsflächen zwischen den verschiedenen Abschnitten des TKG, da das TKG und das TWG unterschiedliche Ziele verfolgen. Beispielsweise seien die -§ 77a bis -§ 77e TKG nicht auf die -§ 68 bis -§ 77 TKG abgestimmt worden. Der abschließende Beitrag "Fachplanerische Auswirkungen des Umweltschadensgesetzes" von M. PETERSEN widmet sich der Frage, ob und welche Auswirkungen das Umweltschadensgesetz auf das Fachplanungsrecht hat. Zunächst wird allgemein herausgearbeitet, dass das Umweltschadensgesetz nicht Schadensersatz- oder Ausgleichsleistungen eines geschädigten Dritten bezweckt; vielmehr sollen Umweltschäden vermieden und die Wiederherstellung geschädigter Umweltgüter erreicht werden. Die Frage, ob und inwieweit das Umweltschadensgesetz Auswirkungen auf das Fachplanungsrecht hat, hängt davon ab, ob die Haftungstatbestände des -§ 3 Abs. 1 USchadG einschlägig sind.
The frontal crash is still an important contributor to deaths and serious injured resulting from road accidents in Europe. As the Hybrid-III dummy used in crash tests is over two decades old, the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee is studying the potential for a new test device. Key is the availability of a well-defined set of requirements that identifies the minimum level of biofidelity required for an advanced frontal dummy. In this paper, a complete set of frontal impact biofidelity requirements, consisting of references , description of test conditions and corridors, is presented.
The Swedish National Road Administration (SNRA), the Japanese Automobile Research Institute (JARI) and the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) are co-operating in the International Harmonized Research Activities on Intelligent Transportation Systems (IHRA-ITS). Under this umbrella a joint study was conducted. The overall objective of this study was to contribute to the definition and validation of a "battery of tools" which enables a prediction and an assessment of changes in driver workload due to the use of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) while driving. In this sense \"validation\" means to produce empirical evidence from which it can be concluded that these methods reliably discriminate between IVIS which differ in terms of relevant features of the HMI-design. Additionally these methods should also be sensitive to the task demands imposed on the driver by the traffic situation and their interactions with HMI-design. To achieve these goals experimental validation studies (on-road and in the simulator) were performed in Sweden, Germany and Japan. As a common element these studies focused on the secondary task methodology as an approach to the study of driver workload. In a joint German-Swedish on-road study the Peripheral Detection Task (PDT) was assessed with respect to its sensitivity to the complexity of traffic situations and effects of different types of navigation systems. Results show that the PDT performance of both the German and the Swedish subjects reflects the task demands of the traffic situations better than those of the IVIS. However, alternative explanations are possible which will be examined by further analyses. Results of this study are supplemented by the Japanese study where informational demands induced by various traffic situations were analysed by using a simple arithmetic task as a secondary task. Results of this study show that relatively large task demands can be expected even from simple traffic situations.
Proposal for a test procedure of assistance systems regarding preventive pedestrian protection
(2011)
This paper is showing a proposal for a test procedure regarding preventive pedestrian protection based on accident analysis. Over the past years pedestrian protection has become an increasing importance also during the development phase of new vehicles. After a phase of focusing on secondary safety, there are current activities to detect a possible collision by assistance systems. Such systems have the task to inform the driver and/or automatically activate the brakes. How practical is such a system? In which kind of traffic situations will it work? How is it possible to check the effectiveness of such a system? To test the effectiveness, currently there are no generally approved identifiable procedures. It is reasonable that such a test should be based on real accidents. The test procedure should be designed to test all systems, independent of the system- working principle. The vFSS group (advanced Forward-looking Safety Systems) was founded to develop a proposal for a technology independent test procedure, which reflects the real accident situation. This contribution is showing the results of vFSS. The developed test procedure focuses on accidents between passenger cars and pedestrians. The results are based on analysis results of in-depth databases of GIDAS, German insurers and DEKRA and added by analysis of national and international statistics. The in-depth analysis includes many pre-crash situations with several influencing factors. The factors are e. g. speed of the car, speed of the pedestrian, moving direction and a possible obscuration of the pedestrian by an object. The results comprise also the different situations of adults and children. Furthermore, they include details regarding influence of the lighting conditions (daylight or night) especially with respect to the accident consequences. In fact, more accidents happen at daylight, but fatal accidents are more often at night. A clustering of parameter combinations was found which represents typical accident scenarios. There are six typical accident scenarios which were merged in four test scenarios. The test scenarios are varying the starting position of the pedestrian, the pedestrian size (adult or child) and the speed of the pedestrian, whereas the speed of the car will not be varied. To ensure the independency from used sensing technologies it is necessary to use a suitable dummy. For example, if sensors are based on infrared, the dummy should emit the temperature of a human being. The test procedure will identify the collision speed as the key parameter for assessing the effectiveness of the tested system. The collision speed is defined as the reduction between initial test speed of the car and impact speed. The assessment of the speed reduction value regarding the safety benefit, however, will be part of a separate procedure.
New vehicle types are extensively tested to check almost all factors that influence ride and handling. With reference to the Association of German Car Tuners" (VDAT e.V.) valuations, approximately 10% of all cars in Germany are being modified by their owners. 28 % of those modifications" sales are divergent wheel-tire combinations, 13 % are tuning measures on the chassis suspension or wheel spacers. In almost all cases the singular modifications present a general permission for specific vehicles they have been tested in. Combined tuning measures, however, are often checked by just one inspector, following a procedure of mostly subjective assessment criteria. Today, critical attributes are only being observed, in case a vehicle is involved in an accident and the modifications are identified as crash causal factors or as a cofactor on the development of a crash. For the first time, a field study allows a survey of safety affecting chassis modifications. The test layout has to comply with some basic conditions. Different vehicle concepts with a wide margin of modifications are required to get a high transferability of the results. A total amount of more than 150 tested vehicles serves the same purpose. The tests are limited concerning the installation time of measurement techniques and the requirement that no damage, defilement or immoderate wear of the vehicles are accepted by their owners. Due to such factors as well as the driver Ìs acceptance, the vehicles are controlled by its owners instead of robots or test drivers. For keeping down the driver- influence, the lane has narrow boundaries and the driver has to drive in strictly adherence to the given instructions. After gathering all modifications, as well as static and kinematic parameters like the toe and camber angle, dynamic testing of predominantly lateral dynamics is conducted. Besides standardized tests like the ISO 3888-2 (Obstacle Avoidance) or the ISO 14512 (Braking on Surfaces with Split Coefficient of Friction), to test the influence of modified kingpin offsets caused by wheel spacers, some deviant tests are conducted. Those are required due to the demand of objective test results for road tests with vertical induced stimulation of the chassis suspension. Hence, new tests on corner braking with and without vertical stimulation have been developed. The interpretation of data includes thresholds, e.g. the maximum entrance velocity without hitting cones, on the one hand, and the analysis of characteristics of data concerning time and frequency range, "1-second values" and peak response times on the other hand. Besides the thresholds as indicators for the achievable velocities, which are mainly affected by friction coefficients, the vehicle reaction in the course of time characterizes the vehicle reaction in the threshold range and consequently the operational demands on the driver. The field study has started and promises the first long-range analysis of chassis modifications. The results offer a basis for hypothesis and resultant further test layouts for oncoming studies of the identified critical tuning measures.
For the assessment of vehicle safety in frontal collisions, the crash compatibility between the colliding vehicles is crucial. Compatibility compromises both the self protection and the partner protection properties of vehicles. For the accident data analysis, the CCIS (GB) and GIDAS (DE) in-depth data bases were used. Selection criteria were frontal car accidents with car in compliance with ECE R94. For this study belted adult occupants in the front seats sustaining MAIS 2+ injuries were studied. Following this analysis FIMCAR concluded that the following compatibility issues are relevant: - Poor structural interaction (especially low overlap and over/underriding) - Compartment strength - Frontal force mismatch with lower priority than poor structural interaction In addition injuries arising from the acceleration loading of the occupant are present in a significant portion of frontal crashes. Based on the findings of the accident analysis the aims that shall be addressed by the proposed assessment approach were defined and priorities were allocated to them. The aims and priorities shall help to decide on suitable test procedures and appropriate metrics. In general it is anticipated that a full overlap and off-set test procedure is the most appropriate set of tests to assess a vehicle- frontal impact self and partner protection.
A flexible pedestrian legform impactor (FlexPLI) has been evaluated by a Technical Evaluation Group (Flex-TEG) of the Working Party on Passive Safety (GRSP) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE). It will be implemented within phase 2 of the global technical regulation (GTR 9) as well as within a new ECE regulation on pedestrian safety as a test tool for the assessment of lower extremity injuries in lateral vehicle-to-pedestrian accidents (UN-ECE 2010-1, 2010-2 and 2010-3). Due to its biofidelic properties in the knee and tibia section, the FlexPLI is found to having an improved knee and tibia injury assessment ability when being compared to the current legislative test tool, the lower legform impactor developed by the Pedestrian Safety Working Group of the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC WG 17). However, due to a lack of biofidelity in terms of kinematics and loadings in the femur part of the FlexPLI, an appropriate assessment of femur injuries is still outstanding. The study described in this paper is aimed to close this gap. Impactor tests with the FlexPLI at different impact heights on three vehicle frontends with Sedan, SUV and FFV shape are performed and compared to tests with a modified FlexPLI with upper body mass. Full scale validation tests using a modified crash test dummy with attached FlexPLI that are carried out for the first time prove the more humanlike responses of the femur section with applied upper body mass. Apart from that they also show that the impact conditions described in the current technical provisions for tests with the FlexPLI don"t necessarily compensate the missing torso mass in terms of knee and tibia loadings either. Therefore it can be concluded that an applied upper body mass will contribute to a more biofidelic overall behavior of the legform and subsequently an improved injury assessment ability of all lower extremity injuries addressed by the FlexPLI. Nevertheless, the validity of the original as well as the modified legform for tests against vehicles with extraordinary high bumpers as well as flat front vehicles still needs to be evaluated in detail. A first clue is given by the application of an additional accelerometer to the legform.
Safety of light goods vehicles - findings from the German joint project of BASt, DEKRA, UDV and VDA
(2011)
Light goods vehicles (LGVs) are an important part of the vehicle fleet, providing a vital component in the European transportation system. On the other hand, LGVs are in the focus of public discussion regarding road safety. In order to analyse the accident situation of LGVs in an objective manner, Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), VDA, DEKRA and German Insurers Accident Research (UDV) launched a joint project. The aim of this project, which will be finished by mid of 2011, is to identify reasonable measures which will further improve the safety of LGVs. For the first time, these partners jointly together conducted a research project and put together their know-how in accident research. Analyses are based on real-life accident data from the GIDAS database, the Accident Database of UDV (UDB), the DEKRA database and national statistics. The findings deliver answers to questions within the arena of future legislative actions and consumer protection activities. The analyses of databases cover areas of primary and secondary safety of LGVs with a special focus on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), driver behaviour as well as partner and occupant protection. Key figures from national statistics are used to highlight hotspots of accidents of LGVs in Germany. Finally, the proposed countermeasures are assessed regarding their potential effectiveness. Amongst others, the results show that the accident situation of LGVs is very similar to that of passenger cars. Noteworthy variations could be found in collisions with pedestrians, at reversing and regarding accident causes. Occupant safety of LGVs is on a higher level compared to cars. Results indicate that seatbelt use is on a significantly lower level compared to cars. This leads to higher-than-average injury risk for unbelted LGV occupants. When it comes to partner protection, there are problems with compatibility at LGVs. For car occupants there is a very high injury risk when colliding with a LGV. It indicates that higher passive safety test standards for LGVs would be counterproductive if they further increase stiffness of LGVs. The analysis of LGV-pedestrian accidents shows that pedestrian kinematic differs significantly from car-pedestrian accidents. At this point, existing pedestrian related test standards developed for cars cannot be adopted to LGVs. When it comes to active safety, ESC proved its effectiveness once again. Beyond that, rear view cameras, advanced emergency braking systems and lane departure warning systems show a safety potential, too. In addition to any technical countermeasures previously discussed, the importance of the driver behavior and attitude regarding the accident risk was investigated. In order to develop successful actions it is important to understand the main target population. In the case of LGV especially the crafts business and smaller companies are the major contributors the safety issue.
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.
A flexible pedestrian legform impactor (FlexPLI) with biofidelic characteristics is aimed to be implemented within global legislation on pedestrian protection. Therefore, it is being evaluated by a technical evaluation group (Flex-TEG) of GRSP with respect to its biofidelity, robustness, durability, usability and protection level (Zander, 2008). Previous studies at the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) and other laboratories already showed good progress concerning the general development, but also the need for further improvement and further research in various areas. An overview is provided of the different levels of development and all kinds of evaluation activities of the Flex-TEG, starting with the Polar II full scale pedestrian dummy as its origin and ending up with the latest legform impactor built level GTR that is expected to be finalized by the end of the year 2009. Using the latest built levels as a basis, gaps are revealed that should be closed by future developments, like the usage of an upper body mass (UBM), the validation of the femur loads, injury risk functions for the cruciate knee ligaments and an appropriate certification method. A recent study on an additional upper body mass being applied for the first time to the Flex-GT is used as means of validation of recently proposed modified impact conditions. Therefore, two test series on a modern vehicle front using an impactor with and without upper body mass are compared. A test series with the Flex-GTR will be used to study both the comparability of the impact behavior of the GT and GTR built level as well as the consistency of test results. Recommendations for implementation within legislation on pedestrian protection are made.
According to the German road traffic regulations children up to the age of 12 or a height below 150 cm have to use approved and appropriate child restraint systems (CRS). CRS must be approved according to UN-ECE Regulation No. 44. The regulation classifies CRS in 5 weight categories. The upper weight group is approved for children from 22 to 36 kg. However, studies show that already today many children weigh more than 36 kg although they have not reached a height of 150 cm. Therefore, no ECE R44 approved CRS is available for these overweight children. In conclusion, today's sizes and weights of children are no longer represented by the current version of the ECE R44. The heaviest used dummy (P10) weighs just 32.6 kg and has a height of 137.9 cm. Statistical data of German children show that already 5% of the children at a height of 137.9 cm have a weight above 45.3 kg. Regarding children at a height of 145 cm, the 95th percentile limit is at a weight of 53.3 kg. Based on these data 4 dummies with different heights and weights were defined and produced. Two of them are overweight. Up to now, there is no experience how current child restraint systems perform in a car crash if they are used by children with a weight above 36 kg and a height smaller than 150 cm. In the future, different child restraint systems will be tested with respect to the ECE R44 regulation using these overweight dummies.
The head impact of pedestrians in the windscreen area shows a high relevance in real-world accidents. Nevertheless, there are neither biomechanical limits nor elaborated testing procedures available. Furthermore, the development of deployable protection systems like pop-up bonnets or external airbags has made faster progress than the corresponding testing methods. New requirements which are currently not considered are taken into account within a research project of BASt and the EC funded APROSYS (Advanced PROtection SYStems) integrated project relating to passive pedestrian protection. Testing procedures for head impact in the windscreen area should address these new boundary conditions. The presented modular procedure combines the advantages of virtual testing, including full-scale multi-body and finite element simulations, as well as hardware testing containing impactor tests based on the existing procedures of EEVC WG 17. To meet the efforts of harmonization in legislation, it refers to the Global Technical Regulation of UNECE (GTR No. 9). The basis for this combined hardware and virtual testing procedure is a robust categorization covering all passenger cars and light commercial vehicles and defining the testing zone including the related kinematics. The virtual testing part supports also the choice of the impact points for the hardware test and determines head impact timing for testing deployable systems. The assessment of the neck rotation angle and sharp edge contact in the rear gap of pop-up bonnets is included. For the demonstration of this procedure, a hardware sedan shaped vehicle was modified by integrating an airbag system. In addition, tests with the Honda Polar-II Dummy were performed for an evaluation of the new testing procedure. Comparing these results, it was concluded that a combination of simulation and updated subsystem tests forms an important step towards enhanced future pedestrian safety systems considering the windscreen area and the deployable systems.
Evaluation of the performance of competitive headforms as test tools for interior headform testing
(2009)
The European Research Project APROSYS has evaluated the interior headform test procedure developed by EEVC WG 13, representing the head contact in the car during a lateral impact. One important aspect within this test procedure was the selection of an appropriate impactor. The WG13 procedure currently uses the Free Motion Headform as used within the FMVSS 201. The ACEA 3.5 kg headform used in Phase 1 of the European Directive and the future European Regulation on Pedestrian Protection is still discussed as a possible alternative. This paper reports work performed by the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) as a part of the APROSYS Task 1.1.3. The study compares the two headform impactors according to FMVSS and ACEA, in a series of basic tests in order to evaluate their sensitivity towards different impact angles, impact accuracy, the effect of differences to impactors of the same type and the effects of the repeatability and reproducibility of the test results. The test surface consisted of a steel tube covered with PU foam and PVC, representing the car interior to be tested. Despite of the higher mass of the FMH the HIC values of this impactor were generally lower than those of the ACEA headform. The FMH showed a higher repeatability of test results but a high sensitivity on the angle of roll, the spherical ACEA impactor performed better with regards to the reproducibility. In case of the ACEA impactor-, the angle of roll had no influence.
Within the process of integrating passenger airbags in the vehicle fleet a problem of compatibility between the passenger airbag and rear-facing child restraint systems was recognised. Especially in the US several accidents with children killed by the passenger airbag were recorded. Taking into account these accidents the deactivation of a present passenger airbag is mandatory if a child is carried in a rear-facing child restraint system at the front passenger seat in all member states of the European Union. This rule is in force since the deadline of 2003/20/EC at the latest. In the past a passenger airbag either could not be disabled or could only be disabled by a garage. Today there are a lot of different possibilities for the car driver himself to disable the airbag. Solutions like an on/off-switch or the automatic detection of a child restraint system are mentioned as an example. Taking into account the need for the deactivation of front passenger airbags two types of misuse can occur: transportation of an infant while the airbag is (still) enabled and transportation of an adult, while the airbag is disabled, respectively. Within a research project funded by BASt both options of misuse were analysed utilising two different types of surveys amongst users (field observations and interviews, Internet-questionnaires). In addition both analysis of accident data and crash tests for an updated assessment of the injury risk caused by the front passenger airbag were conducted. Both surveys indicate a low risk of misuse. Most of the misuse cases were observed in older cars, which offer no easy way to disable the airbag. For systems, which detect a child seat automatically, no misuse could be found. The majority of misuses in cars equipped with a manual switch were caused by reasons of oblivion. Also the accident analysis indicates a minor risk of misuse. From more than 300 cases of the GIDAS accident sample that were analysed, only 24 children were using the front passenger seat in cars equipped with a front passenger airbag. In most of these cases the airbag was deactivated. When misuse occurred the injury severity was low. However, when analysing German single accidents the fatality risk caused by the front passenger airbag became obvious. From the technical point of view, there were important changes in the design of passenger airbags in recent years. Not only volume and shape were modified, but also the mounting position of the entire airbag module was changed fundamentally. Even if these findings do not allow obtaining general conclusions, a clear tendency of less danger by airbags could be identified. For future vehicle development a safe combination of airbags and rear faced baby seats seems to be possible in the long term. This would mean that both types of misuse could be eliminated. For parents an easier use of child seat and car would be the result.
In the last years there has been a decline in accident figures in Germany especially for four wheeled vehicles. At the same time, accident figures for motorcycles remained nearly constant. About 17 % of road traffic fatalities in the year 2006 were motorcyclists. 33 % of these riders were killed in single vehicle crashes. This leads to the conclusion that improving driving dynamics and driving stability of powered two wheelers would yield considerable safety gains. However, the well-known measures for cars and trucks with their proven effectiveness cannot be transferred easily to motorcycles. Therefore studies were carried out to examine the safety potential of Anti Lock Braking Systems (ABS) and Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) for motorcycles by means of accident analysis, driving tests and economical as well as technical assessment of the systems. With regard to ABS, test persons were assigned braking tasks (straight and in-curve) with five different brake systems with and without ABS. Stopping distances as well as stress and strain on the riders were measured for 9 test riders who completed 105 braking manoeuvres each. Knowing the ability of ABS to avoid falls during braking in advance of a crash and taking into account the system costs, a cost benefit analysis for ABS for motorcycles was carried out for different market penetration of ABS, i.e. equipment rates, and different time horizons. The potential of VSC for motorcycles was estimated in two steps. First the kinds of accidents that could be prevented by such a system at all have been analysed. For these accident configurations, simulations and driving tests were then performed to determine if a VSC was able to detect the critical driving situation and if it was technically possible to implement an actuator which would help to stabilise the critical situation.
Accident research 2.0: New methods for representative evaluation of integral safety in traffic
(2013)
BMW has developed a procedure for rating Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) benefits that integrates two distinct tools. The tool "S.A.F.E.R." is designed to analyze the pre-crash phase. The aim of S.A.F.E.R. is to simulate all relevant processes in sufficient detail to obtain reproducible estimates of key indicators (effectiveness, false positives, etc.). The relevant processes include not only traffic and vehicle dynamics, but also environmental and most importantly human factors. Representative distributions of factors and parameters are obtained by taking the stochastic variation of all relevant parameters into account in the simulations. The second tool, known as "ICOS", has been designed to provide a high-resolution, high-fidelity description of crash phase dynamics. If one converts the outputs of stochastic simulation into inputs for crash dynamics, the result is a comprehensive description of exactly how a safety system can reduce injuries. Applications currently focus on high-fidelity simulation of individual crashes in order to enhance our understanding and optimization of connected safety systems. An integrated simulation process thus allows an exact prediction of the effectiveness in individual cases in terms of injury severity. The development and rating of integral safety need to reflect the true efficiency in the field. The integrated approach described here could provide a valid and reproducible basis for rating connected systems of active and passive safety. In particular, "virtual experiments" using a traffic-based approach and incorporating models of all relevant processes constitute an essential element of the approach.
The presentation deals with the simulation tool rateEFFECT which intends to answer the following questions: Which active safety systems should be developed to maximize safety benefit in real traffic accidents? What is the effectiveness of a specific active safety system in the real world? How many casualties could be avoided by such a system? It is shown that a lot of information is required to simulate existing accidents in order to estimate ADAS effects. This particularly includes numerical values for the pre-crash and in-crash phase. The database GIDAS provides a required minimum number of these parameters for a statistically significant sample.
This paper will outline ETSC's contribution to the European Union's road safety policy 2011-2020. It will present some of the main recommendations from ETSC's Blueprint for the 4th Road Safety Action Programme and will introduce the response to the European Commission's Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020 (published July 2010). The second framework document presented is the Transport White Paper (published March 2011). The paper will focus on new targets and the new vision set for Europe's Road Safety policy picking out some issues in particular such as traffic law enforcement and the protection of vulnerable road users. It will argue that by reinforcing the current Road Safety Policy Orientations, the EU will be better placed to reach its new ambitious goal of halving road deaths by 2020 and the longer term zero casualty vision.
Analysis of the accident scenario of powered two-wheelers on the basis of real-world accidents
(2013)
For the first time since 20 years the German national statistics of traffic accidents revealed an increasing number of fatalities and seriously injured persons in 2011. This negative development was especially caused by increasing numbers in all groups of vulnerable road users (VRU). Furthermore, the comparison of fatality reduction rates between several categories of road users shows that persons on motorcycles show the worst performance over years. Although every second fatality in German traffic accidents is still a car occupant, users of PTW make up more than 20% in the meantime. Assuming further improvements in the field of occupant protection this trend will continue. For that reason, a study on the basis of real-world accidents was conducted to describe the accident scenario involving motorcycles and to identify the reasons of the above-described fact. Approximately 1.800 motorcycle accidents out of GIDAS database were used for the analyses. The first part of the study deals with the question how representative the GIDAS database is for the German motorcycle accident scenario. Afterwards, detailed descriptive statistics on motorcycle accidents were presented considering numerous parameters about the accident scene, environmental influences, vehicle information, individual characteristics, interview data, injury severity and injury causation. One important point is the identification of the most frequent critical situations that are typical for motorcycle accidents. Furthermore, a special focus was on accident causation. Finally, conspicuous facts out of the analysis are emphasized. All in all, the study gives a comprehensive overview about the German motorcycle accident scenario. One the one hand, the use of weighted GIDAS data allows representative and robust statements on the basis of large case numbers; on the other hand highly detailed conclusions can be drawn. The results of the study help to understand the particularities of motorcycle accidents and provide approaches for further improvements in the field of PTW safety.
It is very important for Automotive OEMs to get feedback on their product performance on real roads for continuous improvement. Every OEM has a way of collecting this feedback for various performance parameters. Systematic accident research is a way to generate the information related to safety performance of the vehicle. In India, while there is a large amount of data related to the accidents, it is found this data is aimed at understanding the gross statistics and not directly useful for technology development. This paper explains learnings from a pilot study carried out in collaboration with an Emergency Medical Services provider on one of the expressways (motorways). This pilot study has resulted in development of working model that could now be scaled up at for wider application. The paper also presents some of the important observations based on the data collected.
Police records about traffic accidents like used by IRTAD (International Road Traffic and Accident Database) and CARE (Community Road Accident Database) do not represent all road injuries. For instance, road accidents of bicyclists without a counterpart are usually not reported. Furthermore, IRTAD-like data contains hardly any information on injury outcome and accident circumstances. This information gap leads to an under-representation of the safety concerns of the most vulnerable road users like children and the elderly both in accident research and safety promotion. Injury registration for the European Injury Database (IDB), in turn, combines details of accident causation with diagnostic information that can be used to assess injury severity and long term consequences. The IDB is collecting data from hospital emergency department patients and is being implemented in a growing number of countries. In this article IDB results on mode of transport and injury outcome are presented from a sample of nine EU member states.
While accident statistics on a national level are provided by many countries, there is a need for international data that includes more detailed information about the accident, so called in-depth data. As a consequence, accident data projects have been emerging in different regions of the world. This creates a need for comparable and mergeable data from different countries, enabling the use of already existing accident data resources and helping to expedite the improvement of global road safety. While existing approaches focus that mostly on building a comprehensive accident database from scratch, the iGLAD project (Initiative for the Global Harmonization of Accident Data) attempts a more pragmatic approach by building on top of the work already accomplished in this area and complementing it. The target of iGLAD is to help setting up an additional dataset as a compatibility layer between already existing world wide data sets and integrating the structure of these by defining a common data scheme. This dataset is limited to the common denominator between the existing data sets and is inherently rather small and simple. Eventually, an individual converter for each participating accident investigation group will be built that enables pooling all data sets in a common repository. This not only saves costs and time, and hence makes such a target more feasible, but also creates data that is usable right from the start. This paper gives an overview of the current status of iGLAD and first steps taken. Additionally, some methodological aspects are discussed, next to a glance at other projects working currently on related issues, providing additional input for iGLAD. Finally, an overview of next steps and intended future work is given.
The increasing economics in India has an enormous growth of its road traffic. As observed from official Indian accident statistics the number of road fatalities are one of the highest worldwide. In contrast to most industrialized nations they have an rapidly increasing trend. To come along with this trend it becomes more than essential to understand the traffic accident situation. The official Indian accident statistics gives a glimpse of only basic information. Therefore more detailed data is needed. By using In-depth accident data and officially representative statistics the current accident situation can be evaluated in India, if a suitable weighting methodology is considered. Hence in 2009/2010 a pilot study with the collaboration partner JP-Research India pvt. Ldt. was gathered in Tamil Nadu in south of India. In-depth accident investigations were done around the Coimbatore area on four highways. At first, the collected data is evaluated. Due to consequent and continuous further development based on the first approach a methodology similar to NASS/CDS/GES in the US and GIDAS in Germany was developed. Of course all relevant accident related parameters including pictures and severity information were collected. As a matter of fact based on scaled sketches and reconstruction benefit analyses can be done in order to analyze the accident scenery in India. As a first outcome influence from infrastructure, missing education and vehicle safety were identified as key parameters in order to reduce the number of accidents and casualties. To compare the accident situation against international standards an accident classification for left hand traffic was developed based on the German Insurance classification system. Looking into detail additional accident types were identified and added to create an Indian accident type catalogue. The positive results encouraged several OEMs to participate in this investigation and together with BOSCH a consortium was established in 2010/11. Within one year from beginning in May 2011 about 200 highway accidents were collected, reported and reconstructed using the new standard. Hence a first good overview of the accident situation is available for the Coimbatore Tamil Nadu area. The major target for establishing accident investigations is the extension towards other states of India and urban areas to achieve a better overview of the accident scenery. Therefore local and national authorities have to be embedded in order to strengthen the awareness against traffic safety.
Do learner gain sufficient braking capabilities at the end of education for collision avoidance?
(2013)
The paper describes a test design to evaluate the braking behaviour in the course of the driver education. The results show that the braking capabilities increased during the driver education and the learning effects are the same for males and females. The evaluation limit is set to 6 m/s-². At the beginning of education, 50% of the drivers do not reach this limit, although the driver education car is equipped with an emergency brake assist, which is regularly installed in all vehicles since 2009. After the education, 100% of the drivers can reach the limit. The results are mapped to a collision avoidance scenario.
Since 2008, the authors inspected fatal traffic accidents on the spot every year, with the cooperation of Toyota police station in Aichi pref. In the jurisdiction, numbers of fatal accidents were 18 in 2008, 12 in 2009, 14 accidents in 2010, and 16 in 2011. We here report the results of our analysis of information obtained by detailed inspection for those that occurred from 2008 to 2010. We focused on vehicle-to-pedestrian accidents, which accounted for about 45% of all accidents in 2008. Because many accidents occurred on residential roads not far from pedestrians" homes, it was revealed that the decrease of the collision speed by traffic calming such as humps and zone speed management, was highly effective. On the other hand, pedestrian detection technologies seemed to be also effective as a countermeasure on vehicle side. Every pedestrian position against a vehicle was clarified and TTC (Time to Collision) was calculated provisionally. Pedestrian accidents in intersections were also examined. Among the intersection pedestrian accidents within the jurisdiction, compared with the national average in Japan, the ratio of intersections without a signal and the ratio without a pedestrian crossing were high. According to the comparison of the Japanese traffic accident patterns between 2001 and 2008, pedestrian accidents during turning right and turning left did not decrease much. For elderly drivers, these accidents occurred very often. Finally, single vehicle accidents were analysed with the accident pattern analysis methods used above. There were high numbers of single vehicle accidents against object on single roads. Although fatal accidents against guardrails decreased, the numbers of fatal accidents against a utility pole and a sign pole were nearly constant. As for the impact with narrow width objects such as utility poles, the fatality rate was very high, and countermeasures of both road infrastructure and vehicles seem to be effective.
A concept for Safe-Driving-Trainings with a focus on risky behavior and safety related attitudes has been evaluated. 519 participants have been tested before and after the training by means of a questionnaire with the topics: technical driving competence, awareness of risks, and propensity for anticipation. A control group (131 subjects) was used to check for the possibility of response artifacts. Three months later, 92 members of the treatment group and 25 members of the control group have been tested again. The results show significant positive changes in driving competence, risk awareness, and safety related attitudes, especially anticipation, due to the training. Compared to the control group the participants have become more risk aware and they regard of risk avoiding behavior as more important. The results show that this concept for Safe-Driving-Trainings has not only short-term but, more importantly, long-term positive effects on the safety-relevant attitudes and cognitions of young drivers.
The paper aims to study the injury risk and kinematics of pedestrians involved in different passenger vehicle collisions. Furthermore, the difference of pedestrian kinematics in the accidents involved minivan and sedan was analyzed. The 18 sample cases of passenger car to pedestrian collisions were selected from the database of In-depth Investigation of Vehicle Accident in Changsha of China (IVAC),of which the 12 pedestrian accidents involved in a minivan impact for each case, and the 6 accidents in a sedan impact for each. The selected cases were reconstructed by using mathematical models of pedestrians and accident vehicles in a multi-body dynamic code MADYMO environment. The logistic regression models of the risks for pedestrian AIS 3+ injuries and fatalities were developed in terms of vehicle impact speed by analyzing the minivan-pedestrian and sedan-pedestrian accidents. The difference of pedestrian kinematics was identified by comparing the results from reconstructed pedestrian accidents between the minivans and sedans collisions. The result shows that there is a significant correlation among the impact speed and the severity of pedestrian injuries. The minivan poses greater risk to pedestrian than sedan at the same impact speed. The kinematics of pedestrian was greatly influenced by vehicle front shape.
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 misuse of CRS (child restraint system) is one of the most urgent problems in connection of child safety in cars. Numerous field studies show that more than two thirds of all CRS are used in a wrong way. This misuse could lead to serious injuries for the children. Surprisingly the quality of CRS use is coded much better in accident data (e.g. GIDAS) than the results of observatory field studies show. It is expected that misuse of CRS was not detected by the accident teams in a large number of the cases. An essential part in improving child seats and their usability is the knowledge of the relation between misuse and resulting injuries. For that the analysis and experimental reconstruction of accidents is an important part. For allowing an exact experimental accident reconstruction, it is necessary to have detailed information about the securing situation of the child and about the installation of the CRS in the car.
Automotive interiors have long been a potentially injurious impact area to occupants during accidents, especially in the absence of adequate padding. The U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 201, Occupant Protection in Interior Impact, outlines test procedures and performance criteria in order to mitigate potentially injurious head impacts to interior surfaces. FMVSS 201 specifies a finite set of impact locations and applies to passenger vehicles of a specified year range and with a gross vehicle weight rating less than 10,000 lb. In this paper, two head impact test methodologies are presented, a pendulum-test device and a Free Motion Headform (FMH) launching device, which allows for dynamic, repeatable impact evaluation of various vehicle interior surfaces and their impact attenuation abilities. The presented testing includes multiple series that evaluate the effect of differing vehicle upper interior padding on occupant head injury. One study in particular, analyzes a head impact to the side header of a heavy truck (not included in FMVSS 201) during a 90 degree rollover. Additionally, two other series of tests are presented which assess the injury reduction effect of side airbags to near side as well as far side occupants in a side impact scenario. Lastly, a forensic analysis is presented which evaluates two possible head impact locations experienced in a real world accident by analysis of the resulting interior compartment damage utilizing the FMH launching device test method. The data collected and presented includes accelerometer instrumentation and high speed video analysis. These studies demonstrate that adequate padding and airbags are very effective at mitigating head injury potential at impact speeds of 12-25 mph (19-40 kph).
The number of road accidents in Portugal has decreased significantly in the last decades, however, this tendency is not similar in all types of transportation. In the most recent years and by European standards, Portugal is still one of the leading countries concerning the number of fatalities in Powered Two Wheelers (PTW) accidents. To this effect, the in-depth investigation of PTW accidents is crucial and so, a thorough statistical analysis concerning the main factors influencing PTW riders injury severity accidents was undertaken regarding the 2007-2010 period in the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) injured riders database using the software SPSS. In addition, to determine the importance of absent factors in the database analysis, such as velocity, a set of 53 real accidents involving PTW were also investigated and computationally reconstructed using the software PC-Crash. Lateral collisions between a motorcycle, its rider and the side of three different passenger cars were also simulated, varying the motorcycle impact angle and velocity in order to estimate the PTW deformation energy and the rider- injuries, as this accident configuration stands out in terms of frequency and even severity. The results of this detailed study are presented.
Supervision of the safety performance in public transport is one of the main tasks of the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) in Switzerland. Recently a three level system of safety indicators has been defined to cover all means of Swiss public transport. The safety indicators are fed by the FOT incident database since the year 2000. In cooperation with the Institute for Traffic Safety and Automation Engineering (iVA) at TU Braunschweig, Germany, FOT is developing a suitable methodology for the definition and evaluation of the safety targets in Swiss public transport. The methodology is applied for evaluation of safety indicators on a country level and for single transport companies. In a new approach the abovementioned methodology is applied to car incident data to develop an indicator based cross-modal safety measure.
The effect of fatigue on driving has been compared to the effect of alcohol impairment in both driver performance and crash studies. However are crash characteristics and causation mechanisms similar in crashes involving fatigue to those involving alcohol when studied in the real world? This has been explored by examining data held in the EC project SafetyNet Accident Causation Database. Causation data was recorded using the SafetyNet Accident Causation System (SNACS). The focus was on Cars/MPV crashes and drivers assigned the SNACS code Alcohol or Fatigue. The Alcohol group included 44 drivers and the Fatigue group included 47. "Incorrect direction" was a frequently occurring critical event in both the Alcohol and Fatigue groups. The Alcohol group had more contributory factors related to decision making and the Fatigue group had more contributory factors relating to incorrect observations. This analysis does not allow for generalised statements about the significance of the similarities and differences between crashes involving alcohol and fatigue, however the observed differences do suggest that attempts to quantify the effect of fatigue by using levels of alcohol impairment as a benchmark should be done with care.
Real world accident reconstruction with the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) in Pam-Crash
(2013)
Further improvement of vehicle safety needs detailed analysis of real world accidents. According to GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) most car to car front accidents occur at mid-crash severity. In this range thoracic injuries already occur. In this study a real world frontal crash with mid-crash severity out of the AARU database was reconstructed. The selected car to car accident was reconstructed by AARU by means of pc-crash software in order to get the initial dynamic accident conditions. These initial conditions were used to reconstruct the complete accident in more detail using FE models for the car structure and the occupants. Occupant simulations were performed with FE HIII-dummy models and the THUMS using Pam-Crash code. An initial THUMS validation was performed in order to verify the model-´s biofidelity by means of table-top test simulations. THUMS bone stiffness values were modified to match the real word occupant age. A comparison between driver and passenger restraint system loading was done, as well as an injury prediction comparison between the HIII-dummy model and THUMS response for both cases. Detailed comparison between the HIII-dummy models and THUMS regarding thoracic loading are discussed.
With an ever rising human life expectancy the share of elderly people in society is constantly rising. This leads to the fact that at the same rate the share of people with age related diseases such as dementia and poor eyesight taking part in traffic will rise and therefore traffic accidents caused by this group of people due to the disease will play an ever greater role. This Situation will be among the future challenges of road safety work. At present this study displays specific characteristics of accidents caused by elderly car drivers (aged 65 or higher) based on the analysis of the German In-Depth Accident Study GIDAS. Herein almost 1000 elderly car drivers were identified as accident participants in the years 2008 to 2011. The focus of this study lies on identifying special types of accidents which are caused by elderly drivers and on characterizing these types with the information gathered on scene and by interviewing the participants. The main evidence analyzed is the knowledge about the accident locality, the trajectories of the participants as well as the reasons for the occurrence of the accidents. Furthermore personal information such as the personal condition before the accident and driving purposes is used to identify patterns of contributing circumstances for accidents caused by elderly traffic participants.
Beside numerous information about vehicles injuries and environmental data the GIDAS database contains detailed reconstruction data. This data is calculated by a reconstruction engineer who handles about 1000 accidents per year. The spectrum of one reconstruction ranges from simple crossing accidents to complex run-off accidents with rollover events. Especially for complex accident scenarios there is a large effort to design the environment of the accident scene within PC-Crash ®. To reduce the reconstruction time by maintaining the high quality of reconstruction 3D-geodata can be useful. Geodata is available for nearly every area in Germany and can be used for a fast and detailed creation of complex accident environments. In combination with the accident sketch areal images of the accident scene can be created and the participants are implemented in the new-built 3D-reconstruction environment. As a consequence, the characteristics of the terrain can be considered within the reconstruction which is especially important for run-off accidents.
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.
The GIDAS-investigation team of Dresden (VUFO) has documented more than 11.500 accidents since 1999. The documentation of the accident includes beside vehicle-, injury- and environmental-data very detailed reconstruction data. Within this accident investigation the VUFO began to record the skid resistance of the accident site in 2009. The measurements are divided in macro- and microroughness (Sand depth method and Portable Skid Resistance Tester-SRT-by Munro-Stanley London-©). Both methods are used to determine the skid resistance for more than 1000 passenger cars. The aim of the present study is to find out a relationship between the measured skid resistance, the road conditions and the friction coefficient, which is used to calculate the maximum accelerations and decelerations during a reconstruction of an accident. Basic approach to convert the SRT-value into the friction coefficient is the calculation of the theoretical absorbed energy of the spring rubber system of the swinging arm of lever. This absorbed energy is used to get the friction coefficient by using the equations for the work of friction. To consider the road-behavior, in correlation to the friction coefficient, the results will be merged with existing literature. Last step for this study will be a comparison between actual used friction coefficients all over the GIDAS-database and the theoretical results. The study shows, if it is possible to use the SRT-Measurement for the estimation of a friction coefficient for the reconstruction of a traffic accident. As expected, the GIDAS-Database and the additional measurement of the roughness of the road directly on the spot are an enormous useful dataset.
The grip between the road surface and vehicle tires is the physical basis for the moving of all vehicles in road traffic. In case of an accident the available grip level is one of the most relevant influence factors, influencing the causation and the procedure of the accident. However, the estimation of the grip level is not easy and therefore, is commonly not done on the accident scene. This is especially true for the measurement of the water depth. Until now, real accident databases provide no measurement data about the grip level and the water film depth and thus, the estimation of its influence is not possible yet. From the tyre manufacturers point of view, it is important to know about the road conditions (namely grip level, macro-texture, water depth, temperature) at the accident scene, as well as the operating conditions of the vehicles (braking, loss of control, speed, etc). These data is necessary to define relevant tyre traction tests for the end-user and for regulations. For this reason VUFO and Michelin developed a consistent method for the measurements of grip level and water depth for the accidents of the GIDAS database. The accident research team of Dresden, which documents about 1000 accidents with at least one injured person every year, is measuring the micro-roughness and the macro-roughness directly on the spot. For the measurement of the micro-roughness a Skid Resistance Tester (British Pendulum) is used. The Mean Texture Depth (describing the macro-roughness) is measured by the Sand Depth Method. Since June 2009, measurements for more than 700 accidents including 1200 participants have been carried out. In case of wet or damp road conditions during the accident, the water depth is measured additionally. Therefore VUFO and Michelin developed a special measurement device, which allows measurements with an accuracy of 1/10 millimetre. The measurement point at the accident scene is clearly defined and thus, the results are comparable for all different accidents and participants. The use of the GIDAS database and the accident sampling plan allows representative statements for the German accident scenario. With this data it is possible for the first time to have an accurate view of the road conditions at the accident scene. One possibility is a more detailed estimation of hydroplaning accidents using the actually measured water depths. The development of new testing methods and new tires can be based on the real situation of the road infrastructure. Furthermore, the combination of the technical GIDAS data and the measured road surface properties can also be used for the estimation of effectiveness of several safety systems like the brake assist and/or emergency braking systems. The calculation of a reduced collision speed due to the use of a brake assist is only one example for the application of real measured grip level data.