Trip related factors

WP3 of the European Project TRACE is concerned with Types of Factors to analyse the causation of road traffic accidents from a factors' point of view. In task 3.3 'Trip-related Factors' it was tried to characterise accidents that are caused by certain contributing factors found on a trip level. This was done by applying one statistical method to existing databases of the WP3 Partners on the one hand and on the other hand by performing an in-depth case analysis using the WP5 method. The analysed factors stem from the Human Component of the accident causation classification, namely "alcohol", "vigilance", and "experience", from the Vehicle Component, namely "vehicle condition/maintenance", and from the Environment component, namely "road layout" and "road condition". This selection resulted from the task 3.1 conclusions and feasibility reasons. Due to inhomogeneous results for the databases from Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain the detailed results will be pictured in an Internal TRACE Report by Sub-reports of the WP3 Partners, in this task report the main results are discussed with respect to findings and data in other databases available to the TRACE partners as requested from WP8. Both methods applied show that trip-related factors are possible to prevent not on a trip level only, but also from a background level and as well on a level closer to the accident (driving task level). However, only some suggestions are possible to give by these results. A more detailed view for preventing the different accidents that result from trip-related factors is necessary, as shown by the results of BASt with the statistic method, as well as by INRETS with the ultra in-depth WP5 method

Summary report on work package 3 "Types of Factors"

This summary report presents the main results of Work Package 3 "Types of Factors" of the TRACE Project. The work as performed in the tasks 3.1 (accident related factors), 3.2 (sociological and cultural factors), 3.3 (trip-related factors), and 3.4 (driving-task associated factors) and presented in the Deliverables 3.1 to 3.4 and an additional internal TRACE Report (Collection of Sub-Reports for task 3.3) is summarized and discussed. The objective of defining relevant accident related factors first and the objective of analysing traffic accident causation - from a factor's point of view while taking traditional views into account - on different levels - by using statistic methods for existing databases as provided by the Work Package 3 Partners and - by using new (developed in Work Package 5 of the TRACE project) methods on new case analysis in order to gain new knowledge on accident causation was possible to reach. The scope of the identified key aspects as found by the Partners in their work for the relevance in EU27 is discussed. In accordance, even further, appropriate suggestions for prevention of traffic accidents can be derived

Driving task-related factors

Driving task-related factors by definition are ‘directly and causally contributing to the accident occurrence, very specific and detailed, are short-term lasting or dynamic in nature, and refer to the actual conditions of the components’. The aim was to analyse specific driving task-related factors to investigate how these type of factors affect the driver undertaking their tasks within driving. A selection of driving task-related factors were chosen and analysed using two types of analysis; by a statistical method and by an in-depth methodology developed in TRACE. Typical characteristics of these accidents were identified, and for a number of factors, typical failure generating scenarios were also identified. From this, a list of possible countermeasures were defined with the aim of preventing such accidents occurring. These included driver education, in-vehicle technologies and design issues. Finally, benefits and limitations of the analysis undertaken are given, with recommendation for future work on driving task-related factors

Reconsidering accident causation analysis and evaluating the safety benefits of technologies: final results of the TRACE project

The objectives of the EU-funded project TRACE (TRaffic Accident Causation in Europe, 2006-2008) are the up-dating of the etiology of road accidents and the assessment of the safety benefits of promising technology-based solutions. The analyses are based on available, reliable and accessible existing databases (access to which has been greatly facilitated by a number of partners highly experienced in safety analysis, coming from 8 different countries and having access to different kinds of databases, in-depth or regional or national statistics in their own country). Apart from considerable improvements in the methodologies applicable to accident research in the field of human factors, statistics and epidemiology, allowing a better understanding of the crash generating issues, the TRACE project quantified the expected safety benefits for existing and future safety applications. As for existing safety functions or safety packages, the main striking results show that any increment of a passive or active safety function selected in this project produces additional safety benefits. In general, the safety gains are even higher for higher injury severity levels. For example, if all cars were Euro NCAP five stars and fitted with EBA and ESC, compared to four stars without ESC and EBA, injury accidents would be reduced by 47%, all injuries would be mitigated by 68% and severe + fatal injuries by 70%. As for future advanced safety functions, TRACE investigated 19 safety systems. The results show that the greatest additional safety gains potential are expected from intelligent speed adaptation systems, automatic crash notification systems, and collision warning and collision avoidance systems. Their expected benefits (expected reduction in the total number of injured persons if the fleet is 100% equipped) are between 6% and 11%. Safety benefits of other systems are more often below 5%. Some systems have a very low expected safety benefit (around or less than 1%)