Collision Avoidance and Accident Survivability. Volume 3. Accident Survivability

摘要

The report is the third of four volumes concerned with developing safety guidelines and specifications for high-speed guided ground transportation (HSGGT) collision avoidance and accident survivability. The overall approach taken in the study is to first formulate collision scenarios to which an HSGGT system may be exposed. Then existing U.S. and foreign rules, regulations, standards and practices concerned with either preventing the occurrence of a collision, or mitigating the consequences of a collision are reviewed, together with pertinent practices from other forms of transportation, leading to the formulation of guidelines and specifications for collision avoidance and accident survivability. The volume provides a detailed discussion of survivability of HSGGT vehicles and trains. An opening chapter describes the basic mechanics of collision between vehicles, including the two primary causes of vehicle occupant casualties, loss of occupant space through crushing and penetration, and impacts between occupants and vehicle interiors. Further chapters describe measures of human tolerance of impacts and injury criteria, methods of assessing transportation vehicle collision performance and crashworthiness regulations and practices applicable to transportation vehicles of all types. The volume concludes with recommendations and guidelines for crashworthiness design and evaluation of HSGGT vehicles and trains to be operated in the United States.