Sonstige
Due to recent years accident avoidance and crashworthiness on Austrian roads were mostly developed on national statistics and on-scene investigation respectively. Identification and elimination of black spots were main targets. In fact many fatal accidents do not occur on such black spots and black-spot investigation has reached a limit. New methods are required and therefore the Austrian Road Safety Programme was introduced by the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. The primary objective is the reduction of fatalities and severe injuries. Graz University of Technology initiated the project ZEDATU (Zentrale Datenbank tödlicher Unfälle) with the goal to identify similarities in different accident configurations. A matrix was established which categorizes risk and key factors of participating parties. Based on this information countermeasures were worked out.
The changed focus in vehicle safety technology from secondary to primary safety systems need to evolve new methods to investigate accidents, high critical, critical and normal driving situations. Current Naturalistic Driving Studies mostly use vehicles that are highly equipped with additional measuring devices, video cameras, recording technology, and sensors. These equipped fleets are very expensive regarding the setup and administration of the study. Due to the great rarity of crashes it is additionally necessary to have a high distribution and a homogeneous distribution of subject groups. At the end all these facts are leading to a very expensive study with a manageable number of data. Smartphones are becoming more and more popular not only for younger people. Contrary to traditional mobile phones they are mostly equipped with sensors for acceleration and yaw rates, GPS modules as well as cameras in high definition resolution. Additionally they have high-performance processors that enable the execution of CPU-intensive tools directly on the phone. The wide distribution of these smartphones enables researchers to get high numbers of users for such studies. The paper shows and demonstrates a software app for smartphones that is able to record different driving situations up to crashes. Therefore all relevant parameter from the sensors, camera and GPS device are saved for a given duration if the event was triggered. The complete configuration is independently adjustable to the relevant driver and all events were sent automatically to the research institute for a further process. Direct after the event, interviews with the driver can be done and important data regarding the event itself are documented. The presentation shows the methodology and gives a demonstration of the working progress as well as first results and examples of the current study. In the discussion the advantages of this method will be discussed and compared with the disadvantages. The paper shows an alternative method to investigate real accident and incident data. This method is thereby highly cost efficient and comparable with existing methods for benefit estimation.
The role of a national motor vehicle crash causation study-style data set in rollover data analysis
(2010)
On 1 January 2005, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an agency of the United States Department of Transportation, implemented a new data collection strategy designed to assess crash avoidance technologies and report associated behavioral inputs and outcomes. The original goal was a six-year program, however, during the shortened data collection period; it proved a valuable resource for understanding a precrash environment previously obscured by forensic case investigation. Another unintended consequence was an overlap with infrastructure, roadway geometry, and design with the occupant and vehicle outcomes, by virtue of well-defined attributes. External to the collected data, supplementary information was extrapolated, by using manuals published in the United States, by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials and selected State Departments of Transportation, in conjunction with the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Study (NMVCCS). This provided a backdrop to the infrastructure framework of the rollover problem within which the occupant and vehicle outcomes were studied. If a NMVCCS-style data collection were to be implemented elsewhere, then complementary manuals produced by federal transportation officials might be consulted producing similar relationships. The current study uses NMVCCS data to describe vehicles travelling through diverse design geometries and the outcome for occupants involved in crashes within that system. Codified and extrapolated data form the basis for assessing NMVCCS and its value to the transportation safety community, as the protocols are applicable universally. The benefit in continuing a NMVCCS-style study is noted, as the interaction of roadway infrastructure and occupant protection agencies might find paths to better work together in solving the complex rollover problem using a common data-driven approach.
During the last 5 years, the number of cars fitted with side airbags has dramatically increased. They are now standard equipment, even on many smaller cars or less luxurious vehicles. While some side airbags offer thoracic protection alone, there are those that combine thoracic and head protection (of which most deploy from the seat). Other systems employ separate airbags for head and thorax protection, which are designed to be effective noticeably in a crash against a pole. This paper proposes an evaluation of the effectiveness of side airbags in preventing thoracic injuries to passenger car occupants involved in side crashes. First, the target population (who can take benefit of side airbag deployment and in what circumstances) is defined. Side airbags can be especially effective in cases of impacts on the door with intrusion at a certain impact speed. Then, an example case of a side impact with side airbag deployment is given were side airbag deployment is thought to have had a positive effect on injury outcome. A further case is presented where the impact configuration is likely to have reduced the effect of side airbag deployment on injury outcome. Finally, the estimation of side airbag effectiveness (in terms of additional occupant protection brought exclusively by the airbag) is proposed by comparing injury risk sustained by occupants in (more or less) similar cars (fitted or non fitted with airbags) because, during these years, car structure, and side airbag conception have considerably evolved. In-depth accident data from France, the UK and Germany has been collected. Out of 2,035 side impact accident cases available in the databases, we selected 435 occupants of passenger cars (built from 1998 onwards) involved in an injury accident between year 1998 and year 2004 for EES (Energy Equivalent Speed) values between 20km/h and 50km/h. The occupants, belted or not, were sat on the struck side, whatever the obstacle and type of accidents (intersection, loss of control, etc.). For multiple impact crashes, the side impact is assumed to be the more severe one. Passenger cars were fitted with (96) or without (339) side airbags. Most of the potential risk explanatory variables were correctly and reliably reported in the databases (velocity " impact zone " impact angle " occupant characteristics, etc.). The analysis compared injury risks for different levels of EES and different types of side airbags. A logistic regression model was also computed with injury variables (such as thoracic AIS 2+ or AIS 3+) as the dependant variable and other variables (including airbag type and EES) as explanatory injury risk factors. Results revealed statistically non-significant reductions in thoracic AIS 2+ and AIS 3+ injury risk in side airbag equipped cars in the impact violence range selected (odds ratio between 0.84 and 0.98 depending on types of airbags). The results are discussed. The non-significance is assumed to be due to a low number of cases. Statistical analysis for head injuries was not possible due to the low number of accident cases with passenger cars fitted with head airbags in the databases. Moreover, the discrepancies between the data coming from different countries (especially calculation of EES) might have introduced instability in the analysis.
This study is aimed to investigate the correlations of impact conditions and dynamic responses with the injuries and injury severity of child pedestrians by accident reconstruction. For this purpose, the pedestrian accident cases were selected from Sweden and Germany with detailed information about injuries, accident cars, and accident environment. The selected accident cases were reconstructed using mathematical models of pedestrian and passenger car. The pedestrian models were generated based on the height, weight, and age of the pedestrian involved in accidents. The car models were built up based on the corresponding accident car. The impact speeds in simulations were defined based on the reported data. The calculated physical quantities were analyzed to find the correlation with injury outcomes registered in the accident database. The reconstruction approaches are discussed in terms of data collection, estimating vehicle impact speeds, pedestrian moving speeds and initial posture, secondary ground impact, validity of the mathematical models, as well as impact biomechanics.
Impact severity is a fundamental measure for all in-depth crash investigation projects. One methodology used in the UK is based on the US Calspan software package CRASH3. The UK- in-depth crash investigation studies routinely use AiDamage3 a software package which is based on an updated version of the original CRASH3 algorithm, including enhancements to the vehicle stiffness coefficients. Real world accident-damaged vehicles are measured and their crush is correlated with a library of stiffness coefficients. These measurements are then used, along with other parameters, to calculate the crash energy and equivalent changes of velocity of the vehicles (delta-v), which is a measure of the impact severity. UK in-depth accident studies routinely validate the crash severity methodologies applied as the vehicle fleet changes. This is achieved by analysing crash test data and using the appropriate residual crush damage and other inputs to AiDamage3 and checking the program- outputs with the known crash severity parameters. This procedure checks, at least in part, the default stiffness values in the data libraries and the reconstruction methods used.
The "Seven Steps Method" is an analysis and classification system, which describes the human participation factors and their causes in the temporal sequence (from the perceptibility to concrete action errors) taking into consideration the logical sequence of individual basic functions. By means of the "seven steps" it is possible to describe the relevant human causes of accidents from persons involved in the accident in an economic way with a sufficient degree of exactitude, because the causes can be further differentiated in their value (e.g. diversion as external diversion with regard to impact due to surroundings) and their sub values (e.g. external diversion with regard to impact due to surroundings in the shape of a "capture" of the perception by a prominent object of the traffic environment). Theoretically it is possible that one or more causing moments can be assigned to a person involved in an accident in each of the "seven steps"; however it is also possible to sufficiently clarify the cause in only one level (examples for this are described). In the practice of accident investigation at the site of the accident, the sequence chart is also relevant. With its assistance the questioning of the people involved in an accident can be accomplished in a structured way by assigning a set of questions to each step.
In Germany, in-depth accident investigations are carried out in the Hannover area since 1973. In 1999 a second region was added with surveys in Dresden and the surrounding area. Internationally, the acronym GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) is commonly used for these surveys. Compared to many other countries, the sample sizes of the GIDAS surveys are much larger. The goal is to collect 1.000 accidents involving personal injuries per year and region. Data collection takes place by using a sampling procedure, which can be interpreted as a two-stage process with time intervals as primary units and accidents as secondary units. An important question is, to what extend these samples are representative for the target population from which they are drawn. Analyses show, for example, that accidents with persons killed or seriously injured are overrepresented in the samples compared to accidents with slightly injured persons. This means, that these data are subject to biases due to uncontrolled variation of sample inclusion probability. Therefore, appropriate weighting and expansion methods have to be applied in order to adjust or correct for these biases. The contribution describes the statistical and methodological principles underlying the GIDAS surveys with respect to sampling procedure, data collection and expansion. In addition, some suggestions regarding potential improvements of study design are made from a methodological point of view.
Standortkataster für Lärmschutzanlagen mit Ertragsprognose für potenzielle Photovoltaik-Anwendungen
(2015)
Lärmschutzwände an bundesdeutschen Fernverkehrsstraßen bieten ein beachtliches Energiepotenzial. In welchem Umfang war bisher nicht ausreichend untersucht. Es fehlen bisher jedoch Untersuchungen darüber, welcher Anteil dieser Anlagen für eine Photovoltaik-Nutzung geeignet ist. Auch fehlen die geeigneten Werkzeuge und Datengrundlagen, um die Eignung im Einzelfall und in der statistischen Übersicht zu analysieren und zu bewerten. Die Ergebnisse dieses Forschungsvorhabens liefern einen Beitrag, diese Lücken zu schließen. Mit diesem Forschungsvorhaben wurde zum ersten Mal ein für die BRD flächendeckendes Kataster der Lärmschutzeinrichtungen erstellt. Auf Grundlage des zu erstellenden Katasters von Lärmschutzeinrichtungen und sonstigen Barrieren an Straßen (Seiten- und Mittelbarrieren) wurden zudem Verfahren entwickelt, die die Standorteignung von Lärmschutzanlagen für Photovoltaikanlagen ermittelt. Die erfassten Informationen wurden in einem "Geografischen Informationssystem" (GIS) zusammengeführt, das nun der Fachabteilung als Arbeitsgrundlage dienen kann. Das entwickelte geografische Informationssystem beinhaltet Berechnungswerkzeuge, die es erlauben, Potenzialanalysen des Photovoltaikertrags an jedem Punkt des Straßenraums für Bundesfernstraßen durchzuführen. Dabei ist es möglich, Ertragsberechnungen sowohl für bestehende Lärmschutzeinrichtungen als auch für neue Standorte für die Zwecke der Ausbauplanung durchzuführen. Damit wird die Grundlage geschaffen, die private Investorenbeteiligung zu forcieren. Die Ergebnisse wurden so aufbereitet und zur Verfügung gestellt, dass ein Import der Ergebnisse in das "Bundesinformationssystem Straße" (BISStra) problemlos möglich ist. Die Ergebnisse des Forschungsvorhabens liefern entscheidende Grundlagen zur Beurteilung der multifunktionalen Nutzung von Lärmschutzanlagen und Barrieren im Straßennebenraum. Damit wird die Grundlage für weitere Planungen geschaffen. Bei Neuanlagen kann bereits in der Planungsphase die Photovoltaik-Eignung bewertet werden. Mit den erfassten Wildbarrieren besteht nun eine Datengrundlage, die es nachfolgenden Arbeiten erlaubt, den Bedarf für besondere Schutzmaßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit und auch zum Schutz gefährdeter Arten oder Populationen abzuleiten.
Die Dichte des Netzes an Glättemeldeanlagen (GMA) an Bundesautobahnen ist wesentlich höher als im nachgeordneten Netz. Eine Verdichtung des Messstellennetzes analog zu Bundesautobahnen ist jedoch aus finanziellen und organisatorischen Gründen nicht realisierbar. Ziel der Forschungsvorhaben ist daher die vereinfachte Erfassung von winterlichen Fahrbahn- und Witterungszuständen, um eine wesentliche Verdichtung des Messstellennetzes unter wirtschaftlich akzeptablen Bedingungen zu ermöglichen. Hierdurch soll den Winterdienstverantwortlichen eine netzweite Beurteilung des Streckenzustandes ermöglicht werden, um die Winterdiensteinsätze anforderungsgerechter und wirtschaftlicher durchführen zu können. Im Rahmen einer Lebenszykluskostenanalyse wurden Investitions- und Betriebskostendaten von über 200 GMA ausgewertet. Die Analyse ergab durchschnittliche Investitionskosten von 38.300 € je Messstelle. Diese Kosten werden hauptsächlich durch die Art der Stromversorgung (netzgebunden/autark) sowie den Umfang und die Art der Sensorik beeinflusst. Die bei Energieverbrauchsmessungen an bestehenden GMA erfassten Daten zeigen, dass GMA teils stark unterschiedliche Leistungsverbräuche besitzen, eine energieoptimierte Ausstattung jedoch eine wirtschaftlich akzeptable autarke Energieversorgung ermöglicht. Im Winter 2011/2012 wurden in drei Meistereien Einsatzentscheidungen untersucht. GMA sind hierbei die wichtigste Informationsquelle; sie werden in über 60 % aller Entscheidungen herangezogen. Luft- und Fahrbahnoberflächentemperatur sind die wichtigsten Parameter. Große Bedeutung für die Nutzer hat vielfach auch ein Kamerabild. Wesentlich für einen wirtschaftlichen Betrieb von GMA und einen gleichbleibenden Nutzen für die Anwender ist eine hohe Zuverlässigkeit in die angezeigten Messdaten. Daher sollte die Qualitätssicherung bei Installation und laufendem Betrieb größere Bedeutung gewinnen, indem durch die Straßenbauverwaltungen neben der regelmäßigen Wartung und Kalibrierung standardisierte Abnahme- und regelmäßige Kontrollprüfungen auf Grundlage der geltenden technischen Normen vorgesehen werden.
An die Lichtsignalsteuerung richten sich hohe Qualitätsanforderungen, da ihr für einen sicheren und flüssigen Verkehrsablauf im Straßennetz eine wichtige Rolle zukommt. Um eine hohe Qualität der Lichtsignalsteuerung auch im wachsenden Altbestand von Anlagen zu gewährleisten, liegt es nahe, eine regelmäßige, systematische Überprüfung vorzunehmen, um Mängel frühzeitig erkennen und beheben zu können. Ziel des Forschungsvorhabens war es, eine aufwandsoptimierte Verfahrensweise und die notwendigen Hilfsmittel für ein systematisches Qualitätsmanagement für Lichtsignalanlagen (LSA) zu entwickeln. Hierzu wurde zunächst die Lichtsignalsteuerung als Gegenstand des Qualitätsmanagements eingehend erörtert. Auf dieser Grundlage wurden Verfahrensweisen und EDV-gestützte Hilfsmittel entwickelt, mit denen die Güte des Verkehrsablaufs und die Verkehrssicherheit im Straßennetz und an einzelnen Knotenpunkten mit geringem Aufwand überprüft werden kann. Zur Qualitätsbewertung werden Unfalldaten, Prozessdaten und Betriebsdaten analysiert sowie der Verkehrsablauf vor Ort beobachtet. Der Aufbau einer Wissensbasis diente dazu, den Kenntnisstand zu Möglichkeiten der Qualitätsverbesserung an Lichtsignalanlagen für die Anwendung verfügbar zu machen. Hierin sind typische Qualitätsmaengel an Lichtsignalanlagen mit Möglichkeiten der Abhilfe verknüpft. Ferner sind Prüfbedingungen der Eignung und Umsetzbarkeit der Maßnahmen hinterlegt. Mit Hilfe dieses Expertensystems können Maßnahmen identifiziert und bewertet werden. Die Anwendung des Verfahrens an verschiedenen Knotenpunkten zeigt, dass der systematische und modulare Aufbau gut geeignet ist, aussagekräftige Informationen zur Qualität der Lichtsignalsteuerung zu erlangen und geeignete Maßnahmen zur Qualitätsverbesserung zu identifizieren. Das Verfahren kann mit geringem Aufwand durchgeführt werden und kann daher einen Beitrag für die verbreitete Anwendung des Qualitätsmanagements für Lichtsignalanlagen leisten.
Die Qualität der Beeinflussung und der Information des Verkehrsteilnehmers ist in hohem Maße abhängig von der Qualität der erhobenen Verkehrsdaten. Aus diesem Grunde stellt sich die Frage: welche Qualitätsanforderungen sind an die Verkehrsdatenerfassung zu stellen und wie wird sichergestellt, dass die Qualitätsanforderungen auch im laufenden Betrieb über Jahre hinweg eingehalten werden? In einem Arbeitskreis der FGSV wurden Hinweise zur Qualitätsanforderung und Qualitätssicherung der lokalen Verkehrsdatenerfassung für Verkehrsbeeinflussungsanlagen entwickelt. Das hier vorgestellte Hinweispapier, das von der FGSV veröffentlicht wurde, soll die Betreiber von Verkehrsbeeinflussungsanlagen dabei unterstützen, die Qualitätsanforderung an die lokale Verkehrsdatenerfassung zu erfüllen und im laufenden Betrieb dauerhaft sicherzustellen.
In recent years special attention has been paid to reducing the number of fatalities resulting from road traffic accidents. The ambitious target to cut in half the number of road users who are killed each year by 2010 compared with the 2001 figures, as set out in the European White Paper "European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide" implies a general approach covering all kinds of road users. Much has been achieved, e.g. in relation to the safety of car passengers and pedestrians but PTW accidents still represent a significant proportion of fatal road accidents. More than 6,000 motorcyclists die annually on European roads which amounts to 16% of the EU-15 road fatalities. The European Commission therefore launched in 2004 a Sub- Project dealing with motorcycle accidents within an Integrated Project called APROSYS (Advanced PROtection SYStems) forming part of the 6th Framework Programme. In a first step, the combined national statistical data collections of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain were analysed. Amongst other things parameters like accident location, road conditions, road alignment and injury severity have been explored. The main focus of the analysis was on serious and fatal motorcycle accidents and the results showed similar trends in all four countries. From these results 7 accident scenarios were selected for further investigation via such in-depth databases as the DEKRA database, the GIDAS 2002 database, the COST 327 database and the Dutch element of the MAIDS database. Three tasks, namely the study of PTW collisions with passenger cars, PTW accidents involving road infrastructure features, and motorcyclist protective devices have been assessed and these will concentrate inter alia on accident causes, rider kinematics and injury patterns. A detailed literature review together with the findings of the in-depths database analysis is presented in the paper. Conclusions are drawn and the further stages of the project are highlighted.
Im Rahmen eines Gemeinschaftsprojektes der Technischen Universität München und des ADAC, Abteilung Verkehrstechnik, wurden im süddeutschen Autobahnnetz 4 Messstellen eingerichtet, an denen seit 1976 bzw. 1977 monatliche lokale Geschwindigkeiten und Fahrzeugabstände erhoben werden. Von der Bundesanstalt für straßenwesen wurden seit 1978 sieben weitere Messstellen auf dem nord- und westdeutschen Autobahnnetz eingerichtet, an denen zweimal jährlich Messungen durchgeführt werden. Damit können Trends und Entwicklungen im Geschwindigkeits- und Abstandsverhalten erkannt werden. Der Bericht gliedert sich in die Beschreibung der Voruntersuchung, die Beschreibung der Erweiterung der Analyse auf das Autobahnnetz und die Darstellung der Ergebnisse aller Erhebungen. Ein Rückschluss auf das absolute Geschwindigkeitsniveau im Gesamtnetz kann aus den Ergebnissen der einzelnen Messstellen nicht abgeleitet werden.
Annually within the European Union, there are over 50,000 road accident fatalities and 2 million other casualties, of which the majority are either the occupants of cars or other road users in collision with a car. The European Commission now has competency for vehicle-based injury countermeasures through the Whole Vehicle Type Approval system. As a result, the Commission has recognised that casualty reduction strategies must be based on a full understanding of the real-world need under European conditions and that the effectiveness of vehicle countermeasures must be properly evaluated. The PENDANT study commenced in January 2003 in order to explore the possibility of developing a co-ordinated set of targeted, in-depth crash data resources to support European Union vehicle and road safety policy. Three main work activity areas (Work Packages) commenced to provide these resources. This paper describes some of the outcomes of Work Package 2 (WP2, In-depth Crash Investigations and Data Analysis). In WP2, some 1,100 investigations of crashes involving injured car occupants were conducted in eight EU countries to a common protocol based on that developed in the STAIRS programme. This paper describes the purposes, methodology and results of WP2. It is expected that the results will be used as a co-ordinated system to inform European vehicle safety policy in a systematic, integrated manner. Furthermore, the results of the data analyses will be exploited further to provide new directions to develop injury countermeasures and regulations.
Pedestrian accidents are one of the major concerns related with road accidents around the world. Portugal has one of the highest rates of pedestrian fatalities in Europe. In this paper an overview conditions were the pedestrian accidents occurred in Portugal is presented. In the last years, a project related with the pedestrian accidents has run in Portugal for the period 2004-2006 where 603 people died, 2097 have been severely injured and about 17000 slightly injured. Within this project all the pedestrian accidents in this period have been analysed providing global information about a wide range of aspects, since location, driver and pedestrian characteristics, weather and road conditions, among others. In addition, 50 in-depth accidents have been investigated and the data collected according the Pendant methodology. For this in-depth methodology detailed information about the accident has been collected, including injuries, vehicle damage, road conditions and road user- behaviour and actions. An accident reconstruction has been carried for each case including the determination of the speeds and driver actions, and the analysis of the contributing factors for the accident. Depending of the accident complexity, different methodologies have been used to analyse these accident, from the classical analytical equations such as Simms and Woods, to the use of detailed computational pedestrian models as those included in the commercial software- PC-Crash-® or Madymo-®. Also one of the goals of our investigation is the development of multibody models and methodologies for the reconstruction of pedestrian accidents. Some of these tools integrated in the commercial software Cosmos Motion-® are presented. The advantages of the different approaches are compared and discussed for some of the accidents investigated. With these tools the impact speed can be determined from the projection distance with analytical tools or PC-Crash-®, but more complex tools should be used to determine speed from the injuries, what is especially important for fatal accidents. The influence of the vehicle geometry and stiffness characteristics is another aspect analysed, where the influence of the vehicle stiffness has been determined using a combined multibody-finite elements approach within the software Madymo-®.
OKSTRA, so heißt der Objektkatalog für das Straßen- und Verkehrswesen. Im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes "Standardisierung graphischer Daten im Straßen- und Verkehrswesen" werden die Objekte des Straßen- und Verkehrswesens in ihrer Bedeutung, ihrer Struktur und ihren Beziehungen untereinander definiert. Ziel dieses Objektkatalogs ist die Gewährleistung eines standardisierten Datenaustausches sowohl innerhalb von Arbeitsprozessen einer Verwaltung als auch mit externen Institutionen. Die Definitionen der Objekte sind inhaltlich nicht grundlegend neu, vielmehr werden im OKSTRA im wesentlichen die Objekte der vorhandenen Regelwerke und Standards des Straßen- und Verkehrswesens harmonisiert. Zunächst wurde eine Studie erstellt, in der der Datenfluss in einer Straßenbauverwaltung von der Grundlagenermittlung bis zur Bestandsdokumentation analysiert und alle beteiligten Regelwerke und Standards aufgezeigt werden. Weiterhin werden Vorschläge für die Modellierung und Speicherung der Objekte gemacht. Auf der Grundlage dieser Studie werden die Objekte definiert. Der dabei entstehende Objektkatalog OKSTRA bietet erstmalig eine Gesamtübersicht aller Objektbereiche des Straßen- und Verkehrswesens mit ihren Standards und Regelwerken. Im Bericht werden die Notwendigkeit und der Nutzen dieses Standards sowie die Vorgehensweise zu seiner noch laufenden Entwicklung beschrieben.
NASS: the glass is half full
(2007)
The National Accident Sampling System (NASS) was born in the late 1970s. It was based on a substantial amount of experience and analysis of what was needed in the United States to understand the safety challenges of our highways. This work also showed how to collect high quality and useful crash data efficiently. Unfortunately, when Ronald Reagan - a President who believed in limited government - was elected, any hope of full funding for NASS was lost. The concept of 75 teams investigating about 18,000 serious crashes in detail annually was never realized. The system got up to 50 teams, then was cut to 36, and finally to 24 teams investigating fewer than a quarter of the originally anticipated number of crashes per year. Despite this, the NASS investigations provide a rich source of data, collected according to a sophisticated statistical sampling system to facilitate detailed national estimates of road casualties on our nation- highways and their causes. In addition, changes have been made in recent years to increase the number of more serious crashes of recent model vehicles to make the results more relevant to improving vehicle safety. A recent, detailed examination of hundreds of rollovers has provided considerable insight into rollover casualties and into what can be done to reduce them. Some of these results will be presented that show the value of the NASS system. Our experience with NASS and the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) suggests a number of improvements that could be made in the United States" crash data systems. It also provides justification for a doubling or tripling of our national expenditures on crash data collection.
Das vorliegende Forschungsprojekt (FE 89.0288/2013) hatte zur Aufgabe, die Eignung verschiedener Systeme zur flächendeckenden Verdichtungskontrolle beim Einbau von Schichten in Asphaltbauweise zu untersuchen. Auf einer Versuchsstrecke zwischen Pirmasens und Landau wurden hierzu insgesamt 5 Testfelder mit einer Länge von jeweils 1 km angelegt und unter Anwendung herstellerspezifischer Kontrollsysteme verdichtet. Ein Feld diente dabei als Referenz, in dem keine flächendeckende Verdichtungskontrolle vollzogen wurde. Alle zur Beurteilung des Verdichtungserfolgs notwendigen Randparameter wurden kontinuierlich aufgezeichnet und anschließend ausgewertet. Hierzu zählten beispielsweise die Temperatur des Mischguts und der Luft, aber auch die durch Kameraaufnahmen dokumentierten tatsächlichen Walzüberfahrten in jedem Abschnitt. Zusätzlich wurden im Nachgang umfangreiche Kontrollprüfungen und Druck-Schwellversuche zur Bewertung der erreichten Verdichtung durchgeführt. Zusammenfassend lassen sich aus den Ergebnissen des Forschungsprojekts folgende Erkenntnisse gewinnen: - Zwischen dem Referenzfeld und den Feldern mit flächendeckender Verdichtungskontrolle konnten keine gravierenden Abweichungen der erreichten Verdichtungsgrade festgestellt werden. - Die Streuungen der Verdichtungsgrade in den jeweiligen Testfeldern weisen keine signifikanten Unterschiede auf. Die erreichten Verdichtungsgrade werden bei Verwendung von Verdichtungskontrollsystemen mit weniger Walzübergangszahlen erreicht. - Bei Verwendung von Verdichtungskontrollsystemen stellen sich eine homogenere Verteilung von Walzübergängen und damit eine gleichmäßigere Flächenverdichtung ein. Insgesamt konnte dem Einsatz von Systemen zur flächendeckenden Verdichtungskontrolle ein positiver Effekt auf den erreichten Verdichtungserfolg nachgewiesen werden.
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.