Tri-Level Study: Modification Task 1: Final Report on Potential Benefits of Various Improvements in Vehicle Systems in Preventing Accidents or Reducing Their Severity

摘要

A analysis was conducted to assess the potential accident prevention and severity reduction benefits of various possible improvements in vehicle systems. Based on a review of the literature and in consultation with NHTSA, 11 potential improvements and variations of these were defined for assessment. Benefits were assessed by having four members of IRPS' engineering staff manually review individual in-depth case reports to extract information needed for these assessments, and to hypothetically assess the benefits derived from equipping one or more of the vehicles in each accident with each of these systems. A total of 420 in-depth investigation reports were available for review. 'Possible' benefits recorded for the various systems ranged from a low of 0.5% (two accidents out of 420) for 'standardization of driver controls,' to a high of 8.8% (37 accidents) for 'improved brake lights.' The maximum 'certain' benefit (8 accidents) was for 'vehicle lifetime brake components,' which were also judged to be of 'possible' benefit in up to 5.5% of these accidents (23 of 420).