Determination of accident scenarios via freely available accident databases

Abstract

Abstract The derivation of real accident scenarios from accident databases represents an important task within vehicle safety research. Simulations are increasingly used for this purpose. Depending on the research interest, a wide range of accident databases exists worldwide, which differ mainly in the number of recorded data per accident and availability. This work aims to identify critical vehicle-to-vehicle accidents based on freely available accident databases to derive concrete scenarios for a subsequent simulation. For this purpose, the method of the pre-crash matrix is applied using the example of the freely available Crash Investigation Sampling System database of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. An analysis of existing databases worldwide shows that this is the most detailed, freely available database. The derivation of scenarios succeeds here by a new method, whereby a center of gravity calculation is carried out based on the damages of the vehicles according to Collision Deformation Classification nomenclature. In addition, the determination of other necessary parameters, as well as the limits of the database, is shown in order to derive a scenario that can be simulated. As a result, the constellations of the five most frequent vehicle-to-vehicle accident scenarios according to the Crash Investigation Sampling System database are presented. In particular, other institutions should follow National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s example and make data freely available for accident research.