Introduction to Vehicle Safety 2

1

A review of ITS and their safety
benefits Presentation to ETSC Best in Europe
ConferenceBrussels21-22 February 2006
2
Casualty reduction

• 2010 target of 50 reduction in fatalities
• Prime purpose of ITS, eSafety and related
  initiatives is to reduce casualties on the road
• How can ITS functions improve casualty
  reduction?

3
Where are we now?
Pre-crash Road safety driver training, road design, roads policing, vehicle performance and maintenance, belt use, helmets
Crash Crashworthiness - Restraints, structure design, biomechanics
Post-crash Rescue Paramedics training, extrication, hospital provision
4
VehiclesPrimary Safety

• Conventional vehicle dynamics braking,
  handling, cockpit ergonomics etc
• Primary NCAP significant differences in braking
  behaviour
• Vehicle performance varies significantly need
  for improved minimum standards

5
VehiclesSecondary Safety

• Major improvements in crashworthiness driven by
  EuroNCAP and legislation
• Accident data shows a reduction in fatality rates
  of drivers of 22
• Passive safety is a mature science
• Further big reductions expected from improved
  compatibility, side impact performance,Pedestri
  an protection

6
Learning from other transport modes
7
Aviation the safest transport mode

• Crashes are rare
• Pilots well trained and monitored
• Automatic systems reduce conflicts
• Vehicles controlled in position and speed
• Heavily controlled andregulated

8
eSafety Initiative
9
EU eSafety Initiative

• Development , deployment and use of Intelligent
  Integrated Safety Systems
• Information and communication technologies
• Driving technology development
• Research funding
• Enabling actions (eg waveband allocation, eCall
  MoU)
• Coordinating Member state support

eSafety link
10
Integrated Safety on Roads

• Strong industry led set of projects
• Provides integrated approach to active safety
• Total EU investment 250m (50)
• Specifies direction of technology development

11
Casualty reduction and eSafety
12
Accident data

• Accident data forms the foundation of road and
  vehicle safety management process
• Macroscopic data shows casualty trends
• In-depth data supports countermeasure development
• Continuous in-depth researchinto accident and
  injury causation is needed to identifypriorities
  and develop countermeasures

13
Accident Priorities

• Primary risk factors from accident data
• Speed 30 of road deaths
• Alcohol 17 of road deaths
• Seatbelt 30 of road deaths

14
eSafety Technology Roadmap

• Priority vehicle based technologies
• ESC (Electronic Stability Control)
• Blind spot monitoring
• Adaptive head lights
• Obstacle collision warning
• Lane departure warning

• Priority infrastructure based technologies
• eCall
• Extended environmental information (Extended
  floating car data)
• RTTI (Real-time Travel and Traffic Information)
• Dynamic traffic management
• Local danger warning
• Speed Alert

15
Prioritisation of ITS technologies

• Based on maximum casualty reduction
• Take account of
• Numbers of relevant crashes
• reduction of relevant crashes
• Confounding factors especially human factors
• No systematic estimates of casualty reduction for
  ITS

16
How do we evaluate active safety systems?

• Problems
• No systematic method of assessment
• Insufficient in-depth representative data for EU
  25
• Countig crashes that didnt occur (near misses,
  naturalistic driving)

17
Casualty reduction methods

• Standard approaches are
• Engineering
• Enforcement
• Education

• How is ITS being used to improve these
  techniques?
• Many engineering measures
• No enforcement
• Little education

18
Gaps in road maps

• Intelligent Speed Adaptation
• Alcohol interlock
• Enforcementtechnologies
• Integrated approach with road safety initiatives

19
EU-level approaches to casualty reduction

• Wide range of fatality rates in EU 25
• Some countries need traditional casualty
  reduction methods
• Others need new methods including ITS
• Best practise is to have an integrated road and
  vehicle safety management approach
• There are opportunities to improve the
  coordination of road and vehicle strategies at
  EU-level

20
Conclusions

1. There are still considerable gains available from
   improved passive safety
2. ITS has the potential for further casualty
   reduction
3. Countermeasures should be targeted for maximum
   casualty reduction
4. eSafety initiatives should be properly integrated
   within the wider road and vehicle safety context

21
Contact

• Pete Thomas
• Professor of Road and Vehicle Safety
• Vehicle Safety Research Centre
• Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute
• Loughborough University
• p.d.thomas_at_lboro.ac.uk

Attend the 1st SafetyNet Conference Workshop on
European Accident Data and Road and Vehicle
Safety Policy Prague May 10 - 11 2006