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The influence of reduced light transmission of the windshield had been tested under night driving conditions with a driving simulator and the disadvantages of spectacles had been pointed out. When the luminuous density ratio of the objects on the road went to very low values the risk of accidents grew rapidly with low light transmission windshields or haze effects of already 1.2 % on normal tinted shields. The coincidation of low level light transmission and haze effects in the results shows a possibility to denominate limits for the use of aged windshields and no acceptance for the use of low light transmission windshields at least for spectacle wearing drivers.

77 average drivers selected from various age groups had to carry out 5 controlled driving tests simulating driving manoeuvres with a high accident risk element. The manoeuvres being carried out with two identical vehicles, one with standard conventional brakes and the other with an ABS installed. The investigation had to show the extent by which the average driver is able to exploit the increasing steering and braking controllability given by an ABS braking system. The ABS proved to be an advantage to the average driver in all 5 manoeuvres. Relatively few average drivers are able, without ABS, to achieve the necessary balance for high deceleration in cirumstances such as braking in a curve or braking on split μ surfaces. An ABS system enables a much higher proportion of average drivers to maintain vehicles control under adverse conditions.

Today about 14 percent of passenger transport on the roads is accounted for by buses. For bus occupants, the risk of being killed as a result of a bus collision is about 40 times lower than in passenger car accidents. Therefore, buses can be classified as road vehicles with the most upgraded safety. Nonetheless there are some aspects of safety still to be developed in the future: there is still a lack of objective criteria designed to assess the driving behavior of the new type generation of high-capacity buses; underfloor cockpits restrict the driver's field of vision and expose the driver and, hence, the occupants to additional risk of injury in accidents. Bus driver cockpits could be adequately improved at low cost; the anchorage of seats and the capacity of deformation energy of backrests can be exploited to incorporate an advanced passenger restraint system; and there is need for specifying criteria of effectiveness applicable to emergency exit systems

In the years past, quite a number of relevant test procedures, including appropriate criteria of description, have been conceived to describe objectively the handling characteristics of passenger cars and passenger car-trailer combinations. Because of the various design principles of commercial vehicles and the ever-increasing advances of vehicle combinations insuring optimum utilization of space, i.e., single trucks or buses, truck-trailer combinations, semitrailer combinations, articulated buses, platform road trains, and short coupling truck combinations, the handling characteristics of these vehicles are definitely more distinct from each other. A description of the handling characteristics as compared with existing designs will be of great importance to the classification of new vehicle combinations. This paper gives a survey of the measuring procedures applied so far and the findings as published on the handling characteristics of heavy commercial vehicles.

The investigation was carried out with a driving simulator, where 20 subjects had the task to drive in a passenger car on a synthetic, curved road which was displayed on a screen. The subjects could steer the car on the road with the steering wheel and by using the accelerator and the brake pedal they had free choise of the driving speed. Besides driving, the subjects had to detect visual signals at various defined contrasts to the surrounding field and to confirm detection. The number of right answers and the reaction times were taken as measure of the influence of scattered light on driver's vision through four different windshields, i.e. three clear windshields with haze levels of 0.2, 1.5 and 4.9 % and a green tinted windshield with a haze level of 0.2 %.

The strength of passenger seats and seat mounts are usually evaluated on the basis of personal vehicle tests. In particular, the backrest, its mounting, and the seat mounting are subjected to horizontal forces and evaluated. None of these tests, however, accounts directly for forces exerted by unbelted passengers thrown from behind into the rear of the backrests. The purpose of the paper was to investigate the validity of the testing procedure for commercial vehicles. Result were based on deceleration and rebound tests with dummies. The tests showed that none of the passenger seats or their mountings was damaged by the deceleration of its own mass. However, all test seats were deformed by dummies striking them from behind under simulated collision conditions. Seat mountings remained undamage, though.