|
Abstract
|
The Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, NATO. initiated a trial program to test the feasibility and value of obtaining standardized vehicle crash damage and injury information on an international basis. The goals of this program were to obtain better data on the degree of protection which a vehicle provides to its occupants in crashes, so that these data could aid automotive designers in producing safer vehicles and assist government engineers in assessing safety standard effectiveness.
International comparisons of traffic accident statistics have been addressed in only a relative few research papers. Many problems underlie such a comparison: lack of detailed data, missing data, uncertainty as to the biases surrounding the data collection procedures, etc.
A major program -- the Road Safety Pilot Studies -- has provided the framework whereby an international accident data collection and analysis procedure has been established. The Accident Investigation Pilot Study is being conducted under the general supervision and guidance of the Netherlands, with participation from eight additional nations. Southwest Research Institute, under contract to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is providing consultation and technical assistance to chairman. Technical consultation is also provided by the United Kingdom, and procedural matters are handled by the Belgian representative.
Communications between the participating nations were effected by the establishment of a policy-setting coordinating panel, consisting of one high-level governmental representative from each nation. Because of their interest in vehicle safety, Sweden was also invited by the chairman to participate in the program.
The data on which this paper is based were collected by 33 different accident investigation teams in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each team collected the same information on each accident investigated and coded it according to a standard format agreed upon by all the participating countries. At least one member from each of the participating teams received orientation and training in the use of the standard collision analysis report form, vehicle damage index, and occupant injury scale. After the accident cases were coded by each team, they were sent to Southwest Research Institute, where they were processed, keypunched, and stored in a data file. There are now 520 cases in the files. This paper and its companion paper, (Cromack, J.R., G.M. Barnwell, E.E. Flamboe, and H. Perring. "Injury Patterns According to Crash Configuration." Proc. IRCOBI, 1973; 1: 37-42.), represent the first examination of these data. Each case in the data file consists of detailed information on the vehicle investigated and on each of its occupants, a total of 517 variables. |