Abstract
The overall content of this paper is to describe the background and the importance of strategies for reducing traffic accident casualties, the synthesis of scientific approaches for promoting road traffic safety, and the cooperation of G.I.A. (Government / Industry / Academia), as well as the recent activities conducted by Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (JSAE). Especially, the emphasis here is the introduction of a device called "high-performance drive recorder" for a study on incident mechanism from the viewpoint of accident prevention. In the past, efforts to enhance traffic safety were mainly focused on measures aimed at reducing the severity of accidents and their consequences (passive safety). With the meanwhile comprehensive use of safety and restraint systems (air bags, seat belts for driver and passenger, side air bags, etc.) across all vehicle lines, a certain saturation can now be discerned in this field. A reorientation is taking place which puts greater emphasis on active accident prevention (active safety). This trend will decisively influence the development of advanced safety vehicles in the future. Recently, in the field of automobiles, the event data record devices at crash called "Drive Recorder" have been developed. The drive recorder is focused on its capability for the use of traffic accident analysis, and widespread deployment is expected in near future. In this paper, the originally developed drive recorder called "high-performance type drive recorder", which is differ from conventional drive recorders in that it aim to detect active safety related situation such as sudden braking, ABS activating and large side slip arising situation are explained. By analyzing the captured data in short period experiment, the cause and primary factor inducing sudden braking and large side slip situation can be investigated as case studies. An example of incident case study in pre-crash moment of right turn maneuver at intersection is also discussed. In this case, there is some problem about poor visibility due to road structure. The scientific approach to develop and evaluate the passive safety systems has been successfully constructed, while in the field of active safety systems, such approach has not yet been certainly determined, since the active safety systems involve not only the hardware modules but also the software systems concerning the field of human engineering, information and control. It is important to use scientific approaches to the following research items: (1) accident analysis, (2) human factor study, (3) accident simulation, (4) sensing technology, (5) safety-related technology (such as ITS, ASV) and (6) effectiveness assessment. Based on the above outcomes, the strategies for reducing traffic accidents should been made from three major fields, such as vehicle engineering, driver education, and road infrastructure. Drive recorder is capable not only to act as a witness when accident occurs, but also to utilize its valuable information to the design and development of active safety system, or accident preventive system. As outlook of this field, the collaboration among each organization such as the cooperation of G.I.A. (Government / Industry / Academia) is strongly expected to settle the scientific approaches for halving or zeroing the road traffic accident casualties.
Keywords -Traffic Safety, Accident, Active Safety, Drive Recorder, Incident Analysis