Search Results

Results of an accident investigation project conducted by the Indiana University Institute for Research in Public Safety for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are presented. The study focused on the statistical determination of the relative roles played by human, environmental and vehicle deficiencies in automobile accident causation. This paper emphasizes the examination of the role of the vehicle. The study was based in Monroe County, Indiana. Data were collected on three levels: baseline data were assembled to allow definition of the project universe; accidents were investigated on-site at the time of occurrence by technicians; and a sample of these accidents was independently examined by a multidisciplinary team. Causative factors were identified and ranked. Vehicle-related deficiencies were identified as having a probable involvement as either causative or severity-increasing factors, in not less than 14% of accidents investigated.

An approach to the study of driver behavior resulting in accidents is described. It involves the integration of statistical and clinical methods for assessing accident causation. Under this approach, clinical data are used to identify and prioritize driver behaviors for study, and to assist in developing operational definitions and data collection protocols. Accident and comparable exposure data on the incidence and circumstances of each unsafe action are collected. These data are then compared and statistically evaluated to determine the frequency of such behaviors, the risk associated with their occurrence, and the magnitude and circumstances of their involvement in causing accidents. The need for such data in the development of countermeasure programs is described, and a preliminary listing of UDAs for study is presented.

This paper provides final results of an accident investigation project conducted by the Indiana University Institute for Research in Public Safety (IRPS), for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, emphasizing particularly the role of vehicular factors in causing accidents. In addition, these results are put in context with other recent studies which have provided information on the same topic. Data collection for the Indiana University accident causation study was confined to Monroe County, Indiana, where between 1970 and 1975, 2,258 accidents were investigated by teams of technicians using a consistent set of procedures and terminology. Concurrently, 420 in-depth investigations were conducted by a multidisciplinary team. Vehicular degradations, malajustments, and failures were identified as definite causes in 4.5% of these accidents by the multidisciplinary team, and in 4.1% by the technicians.