ANALYSIS OF TARGET CRASHES AND ITS/COUNTERMEASURE ACTIONS

This paper summarizes some of the results of a three-year project that was undertaken by the Research and Special Programs Administration's Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) to: (a) identify crash causal factors and applicable intelligent transportation systems (ITS) countermeasures; (b) model crash scenarios, and avoidance maneuvers; (c) provide preliminary estimates of countermeasure effectiveness when appropriate; and (d) identify research and data needs. Eight target crash types were examined: rear-end; backing; lane change and merge; single-vehicle roadway departure; opposite direction; signalized intersection, straight crossing path; unsignalized intersection, straight crossing path; and left turn across path crashes. This paper identifies target crash subtypes and causal factors determined during a case-by-case examination of a sample of crashes drawn from two National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) accident databases; defines and categorizes ITS countermeasure system concepts; and includes a sample of kinematic models representing crash-avoidance actions.