Male and female car drivers - difference in collision and injury risks

Crash data from two UK resources were examined for differences between male and female passenger car drivers in collision circumstances and injury outcomes. The proportion of female car licence holders is growing, women are more likely to be the driver in a collision and are more vulnerable to injury particularly neck strain. Women drive smaller, lighter cars compared to men and are more often the driver of the smaller vehicle in a multivehicle collision. Vehicle design, crash testing programmes and regulation, currently based heavily on the average male, should give more balanced consideration to female characteristics in future activities

A comparison of injury risk and pattern of injury for male and female occupants of moden European passenger cars

Accident injury data from the UK Cooperative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) was examined for differences between men and women in accident circumstances and injury outcomes. The CCIS database from 1992 to 2000 contains "in-depth" information on almost 14000 car occupants from real road accidents. Although females constitute only around 40% of the sample, they outnumber males in the passenger seats. This shows that women should not be neglected in the design of vehicle safety systems. Soft tissue neck injury (whiplash) is more common among women in all accident types, and there are other differences in the vulnerability to injury and the body region most likely to be injured in frontal, side and rear impacts. The tuning of advanced restraint systems and vehicle crumple zones may offer further potential benefits to women. Today’s vehicle safety community has inherited an emphasis on male characteristics in its knowledge base, research and testing programs, and regulations. Funding bodies should be aware of this and encourage a balanced consideration of female characteristics

Perceived safety benefits of aftermarket driver support systems: Results from a large scale European field operational test (FOT)

A field operational test (FOT) is a technique used within traffic safety to evaluate the overall value of in-vehicle information systems (IVISs) under normal operating conditions. In this study, a pan-European FOT was used to evaluate Navigation, Speed Information/Alert, Traffic Information, and Green Driving Support functions together with participants’ perceptions of safety’ before, during, and after using the functions. Through utilization and adherence to the FOT methodology, data were collected over a period ranging from 8 to 16 months in five European countries in order to assess the driver pre-conceived ideas and subsequent subjective and objective experiences with the IVIS functions. Several analyses of data were conducted, and this paper describes the results relating to the ‘user-experience’ as evaluated through subjective responses. The study showed that before the FOTs started, overall participants expected a higher safety benefit through using Speed Alert compared to the other functions. This function was also perceived to offer the highest safety benefit after the FOT had been completed. Perceptions of safety were found to be lowest for the green-driving function. The results offer insights into public expectations of IVIS functions and how these change with experience and overall; they suggest that, in some cases, the perception to safety benefits could be somewhat misplaced

Some characteristics of side-impact crashes involving modern passenger vehicles

This study examines some characteristics of side impact crashes involving modern passenger cars. The UK National Accident Database (STATS 19) and UK In-depth Accident Database (CCIS) were analysed to determine crash characteristics and injury outcomes in side impacts. UK national accident data shows that clear improvements in injury outcomes in side impacts have been observed when a sample of ‘older’ vehicle designs are compared to ‘newer’ vehicle designs. The same is true in frontal and non-struck side impact crashes (which have been analysed for illustrative purposes). Analysis of the characteristics of crashes in which serious injury occurs suggests that the conditions in terms of collision speed and height of impact (on the struck vehicle) do not usually match those of the UNECE R95 test specification. In terms of AIS2+ injury outcomes in modern vehicles, head (28% of the total numbers of AIS2+ injuries to front seat occupants) and chest injuries (22%) still predominate although injuries to the abdomen (10%), upper extremity (14%) and lower extremity (including pelvis 19%) are also observed. When only AIS4+ injuries are considered, head (36%), chest (41.3%) and abdomen injuries (30.5%) comprise the overwhelming majority of injuries. Injuries to the cerebrum (N=44) make up almost 13% of the entire sample of AIS2+ injuries in side impacts followed by lung injuries (7.7%), skull fractures (7.4%) and pelvic fractures (7.1%). Implications for future regulatory considerations are discussed

Methodological aspects of field operational tests of after-market and nomadic driver support systems and impacts on mobility

Background: This paper reports on the methodology undertaken and some results achieved within a study of drivers using aftermarket and nomadic devices (the TeleFOT project). Objective: To evaluate the methodology for conducting Field Operational Tests for Information and Communication Technology whilst also providing an example of the method applied in the context of mobility within the TeleFOT project. Method: ‘Top down, bottom up’ approach to the derivation of research questions and hypotheses is described. Statistical analysis has been undertaken on data collected through Field Operational Tests and Travel Diaries considering the impact of information functions (such as navigation, traffic information and green driving) upon journey length. Results: A summary of the results relating specifically to how the length of a journey can be affected by information functions indicates that Navigation and Traffic information can reduce the length of journeys whilst Green Driving functions tend to increase the journey length. Conclusion: The FOT methodology was successfully applied in the TeleFOT project as was the novel method for generating research questions. When turning the theoretical FOT method developed in FESTA into practice, several good innovations were made which and can be recommended for future FOTs; collation of metadata, the use of comparable origin / destination pairs for analysis, centralised processing of raw data into legs in order to simplify the analysis of the huge datasets collected in the project

Exploring pathways to negate safety concerns and improve public acceptance of alternative fuelled electric vehicles

Restricted emission regulations force the transportation sector to seek a better vehicle fuel solution, and the uptake of Electric Vehicle is to be encouraged because it has no exhaust emission. Previous literature had shown that range freedom and cost were the main barriers and safety aspects were often considered as technological issues. Recent research indicates that early adopters of innovative EVs do have concerns about safety issues although it was not on top of the list. However, research into the public perception of alternative fuelled EVs in terms of safety has been limited to date. In this paper, a quantitative study is undertaken to investigate the public safety concern of three types of vehicle powertrain: the internal combustion engine, the hybrid electric and the solely electric vehicle. The survey consisted of two identical sets of questionnaires (one was in English, and another in Chinese) to collect data from people with different cultural background. It was expected that this would provide a reasonable number of responses to reflect the public. This study indicates that the main safety concerns are associated with the level of vehicle knowledge and the power supply components despite the powertrain type. The high awareness of mechanical failure is only evident in the conventional fuel powertrain and gradually reduced when moving towards solely electric powertrain to compensate for the rise of electrical failure awareness. It also indicates that the awareness of the specifics of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is not widespread amongst the public as almost all the participants considered that the electric vehicle is powered by batteries only. As a result, this paper suggests that there is a need to educate the drivers with the desired knowledge while simply driving the vehicle could potentially be an effective way to improve public acceptance of any alternative fuel vehicl

Time-to-collision analysis of pedestrian and pedal-cycle accidents for the development of autonomous emergency braking systems

The aim of this study was to describe the position of pedestrians and pedal cyclists relative to the striking vehicle in the three seconds before impact. This information is essential for the development of e ective autonomous emergency braking systems and relevant test conditions for consumer ratings. The UK RAIDS-OTS study provided 175 pedestrian and 127 pedal-cycle cases based on in-depth, at-scene investigations of a representative sample of accidents in 2000–2010. Pedal cyclists were scattered laterally more widely than pedestrians (90% of cyclists within around 80 degrees compared to 20 degrees for pedestrians), however their distance from the striking vehicle in the seconds before impact was no greater (90% of cyclists within 42 metres at three seconds compared to 50 metres for pedestrians). This data is consistent with a greater involvement of slow moving vehicles in cycle accidents. The implication of the results is that AEB systems for cyclists require almost complete 180 degree side-to-side vision but do not need a longer distance range than for pedestrians

Struck side crashes involving post-regulatory European passenger cars - crash characteristics and injury outcomes

This study examines some characteristics of struck side impact crashes involving post-regulatory passenger cars. The UK National Accident Database (STATS 19) and UK In-depth Accident Database (CCIS) were analysed to determine crash characteristics and injury outcomes in struck side impacts. UK national accident data shows that clear improvements in injury outcomes in side impacts have been observed when a sample of ‘older’ vehicle designs are compared to ‘newer’ vehicle designs. Analysis of the characteristics of crashes in which serious injury occurs suggests that the conditions in terms of collision speed and height of impact (on the struck vehicle) do not usually match those of the UNECE R95 test specification. Mitigation of serious head and chest injuries remains a challenge in struck-side impact crashes; head injuries are most frequently associated with a contact with an external object and chest injuries with the intruding side door

Investigation of the protection of children in minibuses and coaches

The draft European Directive on the use of seatbelts requires passengers of minibuses and coaches to use the safety systems (seatbelts) provided. As the wording stands, this requirement applies to children over 3 years, but the need for additional protection is not clear. This need has long been recognised in cars where the requirements for protection vary according to the size of child and the characteristics of both the vehicle and the crash. However, this knowledge base does not adequately address what means of protection children need in minibuses, buses and coaches. Research has been commissioned by the UK Department for Transport to determine the requirements for seatbelts and restraint systems in minibuses and coaches in relation to children. Information is being gathered about exposure, accidents, operational issues of use, practicality and liability and the fit of existing seatbelt systems for different age groups of children and particularly those under 3 years

The influence of driver's psychological states on the safety perception of hydrogen electric vehicles

The environmental and sustainable problems caused by automotive exhaust emission have received more attention than ever. Innovative vehicle technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles, have been developed a long time ago to cope with the problem. Public acceptance of these electric vehicle technologies is critical to their successful replacement of the internal combustion engine vehicles and thus reduce the emissions. Previous researches had shown that the main barriers were the lack of support infrastructures, high vehicle purchase cost and vehicle reliability with respect to safety. However, studies into the public safety perception of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles have still been limited to date. In this paper, a quantitative survey was developed to investigate the public safety concerns of three types of vehicle powertrain: the internal combustion engine, the hybrid electric and the solely electric vehicle. The study indicates the root cause of the low safety perception at present. The survey results also indicate that that driving freedom is nowadays not just a problem of infrastructure only but is gradually becoming a psychological issue in terms of increased driver’s mental stress, and thus, the overall driving safety is affected. Furthermore, this paper states the existence of an evaluation chain to determine the driver’s safety perception. In the end, this paper proposed a comprehensive framework of the negation of driver’s safety concerns regarding the hydrogen-fuelled electric vehicle, based on the results from the survey and a review of psychological effects. This framework intends to explain the perceived safety perception from a wider angle with some in-depth