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Taillight lamp filaments provide valuable information on their illumination status during a collision. This information is contained in the shape of filament deformation, extent and nature of filament fracture, and filament oxidation. The degree of deformation of these filaments, a quantity which may be useful in determining velocities prior to impact, has been documented for headlights but has not been closely examined for taillights. In this paper, a study of the quantification of automobile taillight filament response when subjected to low speed impacts is presented. These studies include two different brands, five velocities up to approximately 19 miles per hour, three filament orientations, and two different deceleration pulses. Recommendations are given for further study in order to provide sufficient data for practical application and use in accident reconstruction.

Side object detection systems (SODS) are collision warning systems which alert drivers to the presence of traffic alongside their vehicle within defined detection zones. The intent of SODS is to reduce collisions during lane changes and merging maneuvers. This study examined the effect of right SODS on the performance of commercial vehicle drivers as a means of assessing the impact of these systems on safety. In this study, eight professional truck drivers drove a tractor-semitrailer equipped with four different sets of SODS hardware or side view mirror configurations. These subjects had no previous experience with SODS. Subjects were tested with two right SODS (a radar-based system and an ultrasonic-based system), a fender-mounted convex mirror, and, for comparison, standard side view mirrors only. For each case, subjects drove the test vehicle through a set route for one day.

This paper describes the assessment of driver interfaces of a type of electronics-based collision avoidance systems that has been recently developed to assist drivers of vehicles in avoiding certain types of collisions. The electronics-based crash avoidance systems studied were those which detect the presence of objects located on the left and/or right sides of the vehicle, called Side Collision Avoidance Systems, or SCAS. As many SCAS as could be obtained, including several pre-production prototypes, were acquired and tested. The testing focused on measuring sensor performance and assessing the qualities of the driver interfaces. This paper presents only the results of the driver interface assessments. The sensor performance data are presented in the NHTSA report “Development of Performance Specifications for Collision Avoidance Systems for Lane Changing, Merging, and Backing - Task 3 - Test of Existing Hardware Systems” [1].

Most fatalities due to school bus accidents involve pedestrians being struck by the bus. All too frequently the school bus strikes a disembarking passenger because the driver was unaware of their presence near the bus. To try to prevent this type of accident, two Doppler microwave radar-based pedestrian detection systems have been developed and are commercially available. These systems supplement regular school bus mirrors. They operate only while the bus is stationary. Both systems detect moving pedestrians either directly in front of or to the right of the bus. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has performed a three-part evaluation of these pedestrian detection systems. The first part measured the field of view of each system's sensors. The second part evaluated the effectiveness and appropriateness of each system's driver interface. The third part was a small-scale operational evaluation.

This research studied the problems and effectiveness of existing cross view school bus mirror systems. Interviews were conducted with 49 school bus drivers to ascertain their evaluations of the use and perceived effectiveness of various cross view mirror systems. Six commercially available cross view mirrors were randomly selected for testing. These mirrors were used to make the seven cross view mirror systems (each with 2 to 4 cross view mirrors) which were evaluated. The optical properties of each cross view mirror and the field of view (FOV) of each mirror system were measured in a laboratory environment. Mirror system FOVs were determined with the mirrors mounted on each of three different types of school buses. The directly observable FOV of each bus was also determined. Driver child detection field studies were conducted using eight bus drivers and six mirror systems with simulated children.

This paper presents the methodology and initial results of an effectiveness estimation effort applied to lane change crash avoidance systems. The lane change maneuver was considered to be composed of a decision phase and an execution phase. The decision phase begins when the driver desires to perform a lane change. It continues until the driver turns the handwheel to move the vehicle laterally into the new lane or until the driver decides to postpone the lane change. During the decision phase, the driver gathers information about the road scene ahead and either present or upcoming traffic or obstacles in the destination lane. The execution phase begins when the driver starts the move into the new lane and continues until the vehicle has been laterally stabilized in the destination lane. If the driver aborts the lane change once started, the maneuver execution phase concludes when the vehicle has been laterally stabilized in the original lane.