CHOOSING AVOIDANCE MANOEUVRES IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS, SOME COMMENTS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP "RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ROAD SAFETY RESEARCH", KONINKLIJK CONSERVATORIUM, THE HAGUE, 19 NOVEMBER 1986

The problem discussed in this contribution is the "missing link" in traffic safety. There is a lot of past information about accidents. From this information hypotheses are deduced, that give an explanation of the appearance of the accidents or at least describe contributing factors. These hypotheses are in many cases based on accident reconstruction, that are derived by using information available in the accident report. However, a lot of the information that is needed to reconstruct the accident is missing. Additional information is sometimes collected by an in-depth study as described here. To check the value of the additional information collected in such a specific type of in-depth study a methodological study in the Netherlands on second-lane accidents at one intersection was carried out. It is concluded that accident studies are necessary, but the information really required cannot be satisfactorily derived from in-depth studies. Additional information is necessary about all the actual behaviour just before the accident occurred and also about how accidents are avoided. From the systematic analysis of behaviour in critical situations theories about the appearance of accidents may be constructed. Accident information is needed to check the validity of such theories. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 809367. (TRRL)

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute for Road Safety Research, SWOV

  Bezuidenhoutseweg 62
  The Hague,   Netherlands  2594 AW
• Authors:
  • Oppe, S
• Publication Date: 1987

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 35-37
• Serial:
  • Publication of: Institute for Road Safety Research SWOV
  • Publisher: Institute for Road Safety Research, SWOV

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Conferences; Crash reconstruction; Crash reports; Data collection; Safety; Theory; Traffic safety; Validity
• Uncontrolled Terms: Accident avoidance
• ITRD Terms: 1643: Accident; 9001: Behaviour; 8525: Conference; 8623: Data acquisition; 8555: Information documentation; 455: Junction; 9102: Method; 1642: Near miss; 8078: Netherlands
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00470009
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Institute for Road Safety Research, SWOV
• Report/Paper Numbers: R-87-3
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 1988 12:00AM