Evaluating the Safety Benefits of a Low Cost Driving Behavior Management System in Commercial Vehicles

This paper describes a project funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that was undertaken to provide an independent evaluation of DriveCam’s low-cost Driving Behavior Management System. In the evaluation study, participating drivers drove an instrumented vehicle for 16 consecutive weeks while they made their normal, revenue-producing deliveries. During the 4-week Baseline phase, the event recorder recorded critical incidents (crashes, near-crashes, and crash-relevant conflicts). A crash was defined as any contact with an object, either moving or fixed, at any speed. A near-crash was defined as any circumstance that required a rapid, evasive maneuver (e.g., hard braking) by the subject vehicle or any other vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist, or animal, in order to avoid a crash. A crash-relevant conflict was defined as any circumstance that required a crash-avoidance response that was less severe than a rapid evasive maneuver, but greater in severity than a normal maneuver. A crash-avoidance response can include braking, steering, accelerating, or any combination of control inputs. However, the feedback light on the event recorder was disabled and safety managers did not have access to the recorded critical incidents to provide feedback to drivers. During the 12-week Intervention phase, the feedback light on the event recorder was activated and safety managers had access to the recorded critical incidents (following the coaching protocol with drivers). The primary analyses were conducted to determine the safety benefits of DriveCam’s technology and safety management process. Data collection is on-going and will be reported in the future.

• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Hickman, Jeffrey S
  • Hanowski, Richard J
  • Flanigan, Chris
• Conference:
  • 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems and ITS America's 2008 Annual Meeting
  • Location: New York NY, United States
  • Date: 2008-11-16 to 2008-11-20
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Photos; References;
• Pagination: 9p
• Monograph Title: ITS Connections: Saving Time. Saving Lives

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Braking; Commercial vehicles; Crash avoidance systems; Drivers; Highway safety; Steering; Traffic crashes; Trucks
• Identifier Terms: Low-Cost Driver Behavior Management System
• Uncontrolled Terms: Evasive maneuvers
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01141979
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 20 2009 7:40AM