Abstract
The present paper describes research undertaken to identify causes underlying single-vehicle accidents (in terms of road design, driver behaviour and vehicle handling characteristics), which continuously happen in one specific section of Croatian motorway A1. The research resulted in a proposed procedure for a detection of hazardous locations on motorways and analysis of possible causes of single-vehicle accidents. The main part of the procedure involves test-rides with a vehicle equipped with devices (a ball bank indicator and a GPS data logger), which collect data on driver’s behaviour and vehicle handling characteristics (position, speed, longitudinal and lateral acceleration, heading, path radius, etc.). Despite the fact that the motorway was designed in accordance with the design guidelines, test rides performed by higher operating speeds identified two locations with a lateral acceleration change a few times higher than the design value. The collected data are then used for analysing hypotheses about the possible causes of accidents by using a vehicle dynamic model. The hypothesis that a sudden change in lateral acceleration could result in a driver’s inadequate manoeuvre like braking and cause a vehicle accident was analysed with a transient bicycle model. The results of test rides and the transient bicycle model indicate that speed, intensity of deceleration and underinflated tires significantly affect the probability of a single-vehicle accident.
Highlights
A large number of single-vehicle accidents happens on a few hundred meters long section of the motorway A1 Zagreb–Split (Fig. 1)
The research resulted in a proposed procedure for a detection of hazardous locations on motorways and analysis of possible causes of single-vehicle accidents
Despite the fact that the motorway was designed in accordance with the design guidelines, test rides performed by higher operating speeds identified two locations with a lateral acceleration change a few times higher than the design value
Summary
A large number of single-vehicle accidents happens on a few hundred meters long section of the motorway A1 Zagreb–Split (Fig. 1). There are lot of combinations of the adjacent alignment elements, which could result in manoeuvres that are difficult to predict from speed profile in a road design phase. Some of them, such as sudden acceleration change, could lead to unexpected vehicle-driver behaviour and accident. The proposed method is presented by the case study of the section of Croatian motorway A1 where accidents often occur It consists of test drives with an equipped car with devices for measuring vehicle handling characteristics (speed, trajectory, lateral acceleration) making common manoeuvres with higher percentile operating speeds. In order to determine whether reaction on high lateral acceleration change can lead to vehicle accident, a vehicle dynamic model was used
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
