The 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study: A Descriptive Analysis of Light Vehicle-Heavy Vehicle Interactions from the Light Vehicle Driver's Perspective, Data Analysis Results

Abstract

There have been several studies that have investigated interactions between light and heavy vehicles. These have primarily consisted of crash database analyses where Police Accident Reports have been studied. These approaches are generally reliable, but they do have limitations. Hanowski, Keisler, and Wierwille (2004) addressed these limitations using a naturalistic approach to investigate light vehicle-heavy vehicle (LV-HV) interactions. In their study, HVs were instrumented with a variety of data collection equipment including video cameras. However, one of the limitations in their study was the lack of instrumentation in LVs. These limitations were addressed in the 100-Car Study by installing video cameras and other data collection equipment on LVs (Dingus et al., 2004). All identified LV-HV interactions from the 100-Car data set were included in the current report. Data analysts reviewed each LV-HV interaction event and coded the Incident Type, Primary Maneuver, Contributing Factor(s), Accident Type, and Critical Reason(s). This project’s primary goals were to: (1) gain a better understanding of LV-HV interactions, (2) continue to develop a classification scheme for LV-HV interactions, (3) compare the current data to the data obtained in the Hanowski, Keisler, and Wierwille (2004) study for a more complete picture of the LV-HV interaction problem, and (4) provide background information that would serve as a necessary prerequisite to the development of countermeasures for LV-HV interactions.