Real-world Crashes Research Articles

In-depth analysis of crash contributing factors and potential ADAS interventions among at-risk drivers using the SHRP 2 naturalistic driving study

Objective Motor vehicle crashes remain a significant problem. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have the potential to reduce crash incidence and severity, but their optimization requires a comprehensive understanding of driver-specific errors and environmental hazards in real-world crash scenarios. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to quantify contributing factors using the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP 2) Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS), identify potential ADAS interventions, and make suggestions to optimize ADAS for real-world crash scenarios. Methods A subset of the SHRP 2 NDS consisting of at-fault crashes (n = 369) among teens (16–19 yrs), young adults (20–24 yrs), adults (35–54 yrs) and older adults (70+ yrs) were reviewed to identify contributing factors and potential ADAS interventions. Contributing factors were classified according to National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey pre-crash assessment variable elements. A single critical factor was selected among the contributing factors for each crash. Case reviews with a multidisciplinary panel of industry experts were conducted to develop suggestions for ADAS optimization. Critical factors were compared across at-risk driving groups, gender, and incident type using chi-square statistics and multinomial logistic regression. Results Driver error was the critical factor in 94% of crashes. Recognition error (56%), including internal distraction and inadequate surveillance, was the most common driver error sub-type. Teens and young adults exhibited greater decision errors compared to older adults (p < 0.01). Older adults exhibited greater performance errors (p < 0.05) compared to teens and young adults. Automatic emergency braking (AEB) had the greatest potential to mitigate crashes (48%), followed by vehicle-to-vehicle communication (38%) and driver monitoring (24%). ADAS suggestions for optimization included (1) implementing adaptive forward collision warning, AEB, high-speed warning, and curve-speed warning to account for road surface conditions (2) ensuring detection of nonstandard road objects, (3) vehicle-to-vehicle communication alerting drivers to cross-traffic, (4) vehicle-to-infrastructure communication alerting drivers to the presence of pedestrians in crosswalks, and (5) optimizing lane keeping assist for end-departures and pedal confusion. Conclusions These data provide stakeholders with a comprehensive understanding of critical factors among at-risk drivers as well as suggestions for ADAS improvements based on naturalistic data. Such data can be used to optimize ADAS for driver-specific errors and help develop more robust vehicle test procedures.

Rearward-Facing Infant Child Restraint Systems with Support Legs in Frontal and Frontal-Oblique Impacts.

Previous studies of support legs in rearward-facing infant CRS models have focused on frontal impacts and have found that the presence of a support leg is associated with a reduction in head injury metrics. However, real-world crashes often involve an oblique principal direction of force. The current study used sled tests to evaluate the effectiveness of support legs in rearward-facing infant CRS models for frontal and frontal-oblique impacts with and without a simulated front row seatback. Frontal and frontal-oblique impact sled tests were conducted using the simulated Consumer Reports test method with and without the blocker plate, which was developed to represent a front row seatback. The Q1.5 anthropomorphic test device (ATD) was seated in rearward-facing infant CRS models, which were tested with and without support legs. The presence of a support leg was associated with significant reductions of head injury metrics below injury tolerance limits for all tests, which supports the findings of previous studies. The presence of a support leg was also associated with significant reductions of peak neck tensile force. The presence of the blocker plate resulted in greater head injury metrics compared to tests without the blocker plate, but the result was non-significant. However, the fidelity of the interaction between the CRS and blocker plate as an adequate representation of the interaction that would occur in a real vehicle is not well understood. The findings from the current study continue to support the benefit of support legs in managing the energy of impact for a child in a rearward-facing CRS.

Brain injury severity due to direct head contact from near-side motor vehicle collisions

Objective The objective of this study was to generate functional forms of brain injury risk curves using the National Automotive Sample System Crashworthiness Data System’s (NASS-CDS) database for the years of 2001–2015. The population of interest was near-side occupants who experienced a direct head impact with an injury source located lateral to a typical seated position. Methods Brain injuries were restricted to Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 2005 Update 2008 defined concussions and internal organ injuries of the head. Near-side occupants comprised two major groups, both of which were required to have evidence of head contact (i.e., a head injury with DIRINJ = 1 and SOUCON = 1 or 2): brain injured occupants (MAIS1, MAIS2, MAIS3+) and non-brain injured occupants with some other direct contact head injury (MAIS0). Analyzed cases were required to have an indication of a reasonable crash reconstruction. Injury sources allowed within the final sample consisted of A-pillars, B-pillars, roof/roof rails, impacting vehicles/exterior objects, other components of the vehicle’s side interior, and other occupants or otherwise unspecified interior objects. Risk curves for occupants with brain injury severities of MAIS0, MAIS1+, MAIS2+, and MAIS3+ were generated using multivariate stepwise logistic regressions. Investigated predictors involved vehicle change in velocity, seat belt use, principal direction of force (PDOF), and injury source type (B-pillar and side window). Results Multivariate stepwise logistic regressions identified significant predictors of lateral change in velocity (dvlat) for all injury severity categories, and side window injury source (INJSOU = 56, 57, 58, 106, and 107) for MAIS0 and MAIS1+ risk curves. Although model sensitivity decreased for more severe injury predictions, risk curves dependent on only dvlat yielded accuracies of 70% for all presented models. Conclusions Real world crashes are often complex and lack the benefit of real time monitoring; however, NASS-CDS post-crash investigations provide data useful for injury risk prediction. Further analysis is needed to determine the effect of data confidence, injury source, and accident sequence restrictions on NASS-CDS sampling biases. The presented models likely favor a more conservative risk prediction due to the limitations of NASS-CDS data collection, AIS code conversion, and unweighted sample analysis.

An Analysis of Injury Patterns for Drivers Based on Police Reported Frontal Crashes in Malaysia

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Most Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia have a relatively high number of traffic fatalities involving occupants of 4-wheel vehicles. The frontal impact collisions have been identified as the cause of most passenger vehicle occupant deaths. Therefore, a better understanding of real-world frontal crashes is needed in support of decision-making processes for future frontal crash test programs. One of the important elements to examine is the occupant injury patterns based on real-world crashes. Furthermore, different frontal crash configurations may result in different levels of injury severity. The objective of this study is to analyze the driver injury and body part injury levels based on police-reported frontal crashes in Malaysia. Road crash cases from 2015 to 2019 were obtained from Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT), Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM). 81% of the cases comprised frontal crashes (full width &amp; offset) while the rest involved sideswipe cases. Most of the drivers sustained no injury (70.77%) whereas 11.11%, 8.77%, and 6.87% suffered fatal injury, injury, and severe injury, respectively. The most frequent fatal cases among drivers involved injuries to multiple body regions for both configurations. The chi-square test revealed a significant association between the frontal crash configuration and driver injury level. The average odds ratio for fatality in frontal crashes compared to sideswipe configurations was 6.29. The rate of driver fatality per one crash has also increased marginally over the years. The study findings provide some information to support the recommendation that a full-width configuration is considered in future ASEAN NCAP frontal crash tests. Further research is also needed to fully understand real-world frontal crash impacts in Malaysia.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Role of Peripheral Vision in Brake Reaction Time During Safety Critical Events

The criticality of a rear end event depends on the brake reaction time (BRT) of the driver. Therefore, distracted driving poses greater threat in such events. Evidence accumulation model (EAM) that uses looming of the lead vehicle as main stimuli has shown significant success in estimating drivers’ BR Ts. It is often argued that drivers collect evidence for braking through peripheral vision, especially during off-road glances, and transition to forward. In this work, we have modeled evidence accumulation as a function of gaze eccentricity for off-road glances while approaching safety critical events. The model is tested with real world crash and near crash event data from SHRP2 naturalistic study. Our model shows that linear relation between gaze eccentricity and evidence accumulation rate during off road glances helps to improve EAM estimation in predicting BRT. We have also shown that brake-light onset does not influence EAM in presence of active looming.

Side-Impact Collisions involving Passenger Vehicles in Real-World Crashes

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; In Malaysia, 6,570 fatalities were recorded as a result of road deaths in 2016. From that figure, 1,197 or 18.2% were involved in side- impact collisions. An in-depth crash investigation study was conducted by utilizing data from the MIROS crash investigation database (MICARS) to better understand the mechanism and characteristics of the crash and to correlate the impact and damages profile with the injury outcome of the involved occupants related to the side-impact crash. The data obtained from MICARS for this study was selected from 2007 until 2016, during which MIROS had investigated 794 for both East and West Malaysia. Out of that number, 41 cases involving passenger vehicles were selected for analysis purposes. The results found that the risk of serious or fatal injury to nearside occupants was eight times higher compared to the far-side occupants. Besides that, the use of the restraint system does not show a significant association with the occupants' fatality. In a conclusion, car manufacturers should equip all new passenger vehicle models with passive safety features such as side and curtain airbags and should also increase the rigidity of the side structure of the said vehicles to reduce the injury severity level of the occupants. Furthermore, the government needs to review all these issues together with the vehicle manufacturers to make it become a Malaysian Standard before mandating it for all passenger vehicles in Malaysia. Thus, continuous efforts and commitment by car manufacturers and the government are essential to produce safer cars with proper and adequate active and passive safety features.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Odds ratios for reclined seating positions in real-world crashes

It is widely believed that with higher levels of vehicle automation and especially with the advent of fully automatic vehicles, the currently typical forward-facing, upright position will give way to a more relaxed and reclined seating posture. Therefore, the current study investigates the influence of a reclined sitting position on crash injury severity by analyzing real-world crash data from the German in-depth accident study (GIDAS).We compared reclined to upright occupants and focused on effect sizes regarding odds ratios at different injury severity levels. We used the abbreviated injury scale (AIS 2015) for injury scaling and the maximum AIS (MAIS) at the levels 2+, 3+, and 4+ to convert injury severity into a dichotomous metric. Two different analyses were conducted, one looking at the occupant MAIS and one focusing on selected body regions. The body regions investigated are head/face/neck (HFN), thorax, abdomen, pelvis/hip/lower extremities (PHL), and upper extremities.We computed odds ratios greater than one indicating a higher odds of injury at a given injury severity level in the reclined group compared to the upright group. The odds ratios for belted, reclined occupants compared to belted, upright sitting occupants are 2.07, 3.09, and 3.66 for the injury severity levels MAIS2+, MAIS3+, and MAIS4+, respectively. When looking at the body regions, the spread of the odds ratios is wider: At the MAIS2+ level, the odds ratios range between 1.6 and 7.1; at the MAIS3+ level, the odds ratios span from 1.5 to 8.7, with the latter value representing the PHL region. No odds ratio could be computed for the upper extremity injuries at this level. At the MAIS4+ injury severity level, only the HFN odds ratio was statistically significant with a value of 5.6.This study is among the first to show an association between body posture and injury severity at MAIS3+ and MAIS4+ injury level in real-world crashes for reclined seating postures.

Evaluating automated emergency braking performance in simulated car-to-two-wheeler crashes in China: A comparison between C-NCAP tests and in-depth crash data

Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) is an effective way to prevent crashes from happening or mitigate their severity. Because riders of two-wheelers (TWs) are among the most vulnerable road users, New Car Assessment Programs, like the China New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP), have recently introduced test scenarios for the assessment of AEB for cars encountering TWs (TW-AEB).The main aim of this study was to determine how well two different C-NCAP test scenario datasets reflect real-world crash scenarios for the purpose of assessing TW-AEB performance. We used virtual counterfactual simulations to determine whether the hypothetical TW-AEB’s performance, when applied to the two C-NCAP datasets, was similar to its performance when applied to a set of reconstructed car-to-TW crashes representing real-world crashes. The test datasets were the current C-NCAP scenario set and a proposed C-NCAP scenario set; the real-world crash dataset comprised 113 reconstructed crashes from the Shanghai United Road Traffic Safety Scientific Research Center database (SHUFO). The performances were compared with respect to crash avoidance rate and the characteristics of the remaining crashes.A substantially higher proportion of crashes was avoided in the current C-NCAP scenario set than in the other two (with the sensor field of view (FoV) set to 70° and the activation time to 1.1 s TTC). In fact, with these parameter settings, no crashes remained in the current C-NCAP scenarios, while only 37% and 46% of the crashes in the proposed C-NCAP scenario set and SHUFO crash set were avoided, respectively.Our findings show that TW-AEB systems which are optimized for the current C-NCAP test scenarios are likely to provide benefits in real-world crashes. However, including additional test scenarios which reflect real-world crash situations more accurately would likely lead to a higher correlation between C-NCAP scores and real-world TW-AEB performance. In particular, we recommend the introduction of longitudinal same-direction scenarios with the car or TW turning and perpendicular scenarios with high TW traveling speed, in future C-NCAP releases. Inclusion of these scenarios in C-NCAP might reward improvements of future TW-AEBs toward systems that can save more lives. Furthermore, our study shows that there is likely to be a substantial number of crashes with an impact speed higher than 40 km/h still remaining even after the widespread application of TW-AEB. Therefore, passive safety for TW riders on Chinese roads will be still needed.

Development of Simulated Scenarios for Quadricycle Safety

In Italy, quadricycles can be driven by the youngest category of drivers of 14 years of age. The increasing popularity together with the low-level of safety regulation of these vehicles compared to cars gives cause for concern. Simulators, considered as a training method, provide a realistic reproduction of driving environments so that they can be used to improve driving skills and risk awareness to novice and young drivers. Simulation trial can also be used to evaluate driving performance about safety. At first, the more appropriate simulated accident scenarios for training of young drivers were identified as those with the highest frequency in real world crashes. Since the ISTAT national crash data base includes a multitude of information, but no unique scenario code, it was necessary to use all the available data to classify the proper scenario associated with each crash. To this aim, the taxonomy theory was applied to create a comparable structure for the database. For training and evaluation tests, five accident scenarios were implemented in a simulation course that lasted approximately fifteen minutes. Ten participants driving a simulated quadricycle in a simple one screen simulator were used as a sample to test the working performance of the scenarios. Finally, Traffic Conflict Technique was applied to measure performance indicators derived from the data acquired during the simulation tests. The results confirmed data from the accident database about the location of accidents in rural intersections.

Evaluating Risk Factors in Motorcycle-Passenger Car Crashes through Real-World Investigation

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; The study analyses 55 real world crashes involving motorcycles with passenger cars through on-the-spot crash investigation. Analysis was performed based on input gathered during vehicle damage assessment, crash site inspection and injury information provided by the treating hospital. Through the analysis performed, the data revealed that weekday crashes mostly occurred during morning period while weekend crashes were more prevalent at night. Crashes occurring during weekends were less likely to occur between 06:00 until 11:59 and 6.125 times more likely to occur during the night period (18:00 – 23:59). Most of the motorcycle – passenger vehicle crashes investigated involved situations whereby both the vehicles were travelling in the same direction, with one of the vehicle in turning manoeuvre. Moreover, 61.8% of the investigated crashes occurred when the passenger vehicles were at fault. The data revealed 28.7% of the involved riders suffered injuries to lower extremities, followed by head and neck injuries at 25%. In terms of injury severity of the involved riders, odds ratio value reveals that side impact, compared to other types of crash configuration were 3.750 times more likely to result in MAIS 3 and above. The result also proved that impact speed has a significant effect on the injury severity of the riders. MAIS level 2 and below injury severities were over presented for the lower range impact speeds while an adverse trend was observed for the higher range impact speeds.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Is Acceleration a Valid Proxy for Injury Risk in Minimal Damage Traffic Crashes? A Comparative Review of Volunteer, ADL and Real-World Studies.

Injury claims associated with minimal damage rear impact traffic crashes are often defended using a “biomechanical approach,” in which the occupant forces of the crash are compared to the forces of activities of daily living (ADLs), resulting in the conclusion that the risk of injury from the crash is the same as for ADLs. The purpose of the present investigation is to evaluate the scientific validity of the central operating premise of the biomechanical approach to injury causation; that occupant acceleration is a scientifically valid proxy for injury risk. Data were abstracted, pooled, and compared from three categories of published literature: (1) volunteer rear impact crash testing studies, (2) ADL studies, and (3) observational studies of real-world rear impacts. We compared the occupant accelerations of minimal or no damage (i.e., 3 to 11 kph speed change or “delta V”) rear impact crash tests to the accelerations described in 6 of the most commonly reported ADLs in the reviewed studies. As a final step, the injury risk observed in real world crashes was compared to the results of the pooled crash test and ADL analyses, controlling for delta V. The results of the analyses indicated that average peak linear and angular acceleration forces observed at the head during rear impact crash tests were typically at least several times greater than average forces observed during ADLs. In contrast, the injury risk of real-world minimal damage rear impact crashes was estimated to be at least 2000 times greater than for any ADL. The results of our analysis indicate that the principle underlying the biomechanical injury causation approach, that occupant acceleration is a proxy for injury risk, is scientifically invalid. The biomechanical approach to injury causation in minimal damage crashes invariably results in the vast underestimation of the actual risk of such crashes, and should be discontinued as it is a scientifically invalid practice.

Crash rates of convertible cars

Objective Convertible cars have existed since among the first automobiles, and the lack of substantial roof structure creates some safety concerns. Though crash tests have demonstrated that convertibles can resist excessive intrusion in front and side crashes and that strong A-pillars and roll bars can help maintain survival space in rollovers, little work has been done examining the real-world crash experience of these vehicles. The objective of this study was to compare the crash experience of recent convertibles with nonconvertible versions of the same cars using the most recent crash data. Methods Crash and exposure data were obtained from the U.S. Department of Transportation and IHS Markit, respectively. Rates of driver deaths and police-reported crash involvements were compared for 1- to 5-year-old convertible cars and their nonconvertible versions during 2014–2018. Exposure measures included registered vehicle years (RVY) and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). These rates were compared using the standardized mortality ratio to account for possible differences in exposure distribution. Crash circumstances (e.g., point of impact, rollover, ejection) and behavioral outcomes (e.g., speeding, alcohol impairment, seat belt use) were compared for drivers killed in crashes. Results Convertibles had lower driver death rates and police-reported crash involvement rates on the basis of both RVY and VMT. However, the differences in driver death rates were not statistically significant. Driver deaths per 10 billion VMT were 11% lower for convertibles, and driver involvement in police-reported crashes per 10 million VMT was 6% lower. On average, convertibles were driven 1,595 fewer miles per year than the nonconvertible versions of these cars. Among fatally injured drivers, convertibles had slightly higher rates of ejection, and behavioral differences were minimal. The number of rollovers was small and their rate did not substantially differ between convertibles and their nonconvertible versions. Conclusions Safety concerns associated with convertibles’ retractable roof structures were not supported by the results of this study.

Cluster analysis of seriously injured occupants in motor vehicle crashes

Permanent monitoring of real-world crashes is important to identify injury patterns and injury mechanisms that still occur in the field despite existing regulations and consumer testing programs. This study investigates current injury patterns at the MAIS 3+ level in the accident environment without limiting the impact direction. The approach consisted of applying unsupervised clustering algorithms to NASS-CDS crash data in order to classify seriously injured, belted occupants into clusters based on injured body regions, biomechanical characteristics and crash severity. Injury patterns in each cluster were analyzed and associated with other characteristics of the crash, such as the collision configuration. The groups of seriously injured occupants found in this research contain a large amount of information and research possibilities. The resulting clusters represent new opportunities for vehicle safety, which have been highlighted in this study.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the capability of a detailed FE human body lower limb mode, called HALL (Human Active Lower Limb) model, in predicting real world pedestrian injuries and to investigate injury mechanism of pedestrian lower limb in vehicle collisions. Methods: Two real world vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes with detailed information were selected. Then, a pedestrian model combining the HALL model and the upper body of the 50th% Chinese dummy model and vehicle front models were developed to reconstruct the selected real world crashes, and the predictions of the simulations were analyzed together with observations from the accident data. Results: The results show that the predictions of the HALL model for pedestrian lower limb long bone fractures match well with the observation from hospital data of the real world accidents, and the predicted thresholds of bending moment for tibia and femur fracture are close to the average values calculated from cadaver test data. Analysis of injury mechanism of pedestrian lower limb in collisions indicates that the relatively sharper bumper of minivan type vehicles can produce concentrated loading to the lower leg and a high risk of tibia/fibula fracture, while the relatively sharper and lower bonnet leading edge may cause concentrate loading to the thigh and high femur fracture risk. Conclusions: The findings imply that the HALL model could be used as an effective tool for predicting pedestrian lower limb injuries in vehicle collisions and improvements to the minivan bumper and sedan bonnet leading edge should be concerned further in vehicle design.

Occupant kinematics in a high speed vehicle-to-vehicle rear-end collision

14.6% of real-world crashes are of 6 o'clock impact orientation, and 72.7% of the involved vehicles are sedans. The risk of serious to fatal injuries in 6 o'clock impacts at 35 mph (56 kph) delta V and over was 7.3%, more than 70 times higher than the crashes under 35 mph. A rear-end vehicle-to-vehicle crash test was conducted using two sedans at 125 kph. The collision resulted in a 66 kph delta V of the struck vehicle. The intruding rear seatback occupied most of the rear seat compartment and pressed against the driver seat which was moving rearward relative to the vehicle. The driver seat and the ATD torso stopped moving rearward, but the head kept moving rearward over the head restraint with the neck in extension. These kinematics were due to the ATD moving upward with respect to the vehicle during the downward movement of the vehicle rear structure.

Pedestrian injuries from cars and SUVs: Updated crash outcomes from the vulnerable road user injury prevention alliance (VIPA)

Objective The current short communication was written to update research on real-world pedestrian crashes. In particular, our analysis offers a preliminary update on SUV-pedestrian crash outcomes and how they differ from car-pedestrian crash outcomes. Detailed injury data were linked to vehicle features to offer a better understanding of pedestrian injury etiology. Methods We analyzed 82 single-vehicle crashes from the VIPA pedestrian crash database, focusing on crashes involving an SUV or car. Each crash from this database includes an in-depth analysis of police reports, pedestrian medical records, crash reconstructions, and injury attribution by a panel of experts. Results SUVs remain disproportionately likely to injure and kill pedestrians compared with cars, but these differences emerged primarily at crashes of intermediate speed. Crashes at low speeds and high speeds tend to produce similar injury outcomes independent of striking vehicle type (mild and fatal, respectively). The data suggest that the elevated danger to pedestrians from SUVs in these crashes may be largely related to injuries caused by impacts with the vehicles’ leading edge: the bumper, grille, and headlights. Conclusions Although the current analysis was based on a non-nationally representative dataset, the elevated pedestrian injury risk originating from SUVs’ leading edge is consistent with past research on the subject. That is, despite the changes in vehicle design and fleet composition over the past two decades, SUVs may remain disproportionately likely to injure pedestrians compared with cars.

Finite element reconstruction of a vehicle-to-pedestrian impact

Objective This study aims to reconstruct a real-world Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network vehicle-to-pedestrian impact to supplement the determination of pedestrian kinematics and injury causation. Methods A case involving a 46-year-old male pedestrian with a height of 163 cm and mass of 100 kg that was impacted by a 2019 Dodge Charger Pursuit police cruiser at an approximate velocity of 20.1 m/s was reconstructed. The case vehicle was represented by a rigid shell of a 2019 Dodge Charger vehicle exterior from an open-source database. The case pedestrian was represented by the Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC) 50th percentile male simplified pedestrian human body model. The GHBMC model was isometrically scaled to a height of 163 cm and the external layer of flesh was morphed to a male reference geometry with the same age, height, and body mass index as the case pedestrian. The approximate location and position of the pedestrian at the time of impact was determined from case vehicle dashboard camera images and the pedestrian model was adjusted accordingly. Results Reconstruction kinematics aligned with proposed CIREN case kinematics. The GHBMC model predicted fractures of the left inferior ischiopubic ramus, superior pubic ramus, ilium, sacral ala, acetabulum, and right ilium. Conclusions Finite element reconstructions of real-world pedestrian impacts are useful for analyzing pedestrian kinematics and provide an effective tool for improving pedestrian impact injury analyses.

An Analysis of Accident Claims for Cars with Blind Spot Detection (BSD) Technology in Malaysia

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Traumatic injuries sustained by motorcyclists are the leading cause of death in all vehicular accidents in Malaysia. In view of this situation, the New Car Assessment Programme for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP) has proactively announced its New Roadmap 2021-2025 with a more inclusive assessment protocol, whereby a Motorcyclist Safety Pillar has been added. Items in the pillar include Blind Spot Detection and Blind Spot Visualisation (BSD/BSV). However, apart from a few existing studies, the evaluation of BSD technology in real-world crashes in Malaysia is still inconclusive. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to analyse the insurance claims in road accidents and crash distribution for cars equipped with BSD technology. In this study, the BSD technology is evaluated by the most popular car models on Malaysian roads for the selected years from 2017 to 2018. The total number of accident claims recorded was 259,033 involving several notable brands. Frontal crashes accounted for 51% of the cases with 133,121 claims and made up the highest number of accident claims, rear crashes made up 24% of cases with 62,106 claims, and side crashes registered only 5% with 12,885 claims. The number of side crashes showed about 11% reduction on average in the following year for all the makes-models selected. This analysis could become a future benchmark for the overall effectiveness of the BSD system in a road crashes involving the side crash. The finding of this study has consolidated ASEAN NCAP's plans and initiatives to take the lead by implementing the use of the BSD technology in passenger cars to increase road safety.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Why My App Crashes? Understanding and Benchmarking Framework-Specific Exceptions of Android Apps

Mobile apps have become ubiquitous. Ensuring their correctness and reliability is important. However, many apps still suffer from occasional to frequent crashes, weakening their competitive edge. Large-scale, deep analyses of the characteristics of real-world app crashes can provide useful insights to both developers and researchers. However, such studies are difficult and yet to be carried out — this work fills this gap. We collected 16,245 and 8,760 unique exceptions from 2,486 open-source and 3,230 commercial Android apps, respectively, and observed that the exceptions thrown from Android framework (termed <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">“framework-specific exceptions”</i> ) account for the majority. With one-year effort, we (1) extensively investigated these framework-specific exceptions, and (2) further conducted an online survey of 135 professional app developers about how they analyze, test, reproduce and fix these exceptions. Specifically, we aim to understand the framework-specific exceptions from several perspectives: (i) their characteristics (e.g., manifestation locations, fault taxonomy), (ii) the developers’ testing practices, (iii) existing bug detection techniques’ effectiveness, (iv) their reproducibility and (v) bug fixes. To enable follow-up research (e.g., bug understanding, detection, localization and repairing), we further systematically constructed, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DroidDefects</i> , the first comprehensive and largest benchmark of Android app exception bugs. This benchmark contains 33 <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">reproducible</i> exceptions (with test cases, stack traces, faulty and fixed app versions, bug types, etc.), and 3,696 <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ground-truth</i> exceptions (real faults manifested by automated testing tools), which cover the apps with different complexities and diverse exception types. Based on our findings, we also built two prototype tools: Stoat+, an optimized dynamic testing tool, which quickly uncovered three previously-unknown, fixed crashes in Gmail and Google+; ExLocator, an exception localization tool, which can locate the root causes of specific exception types. Our dataset, benchmark and tools are publicly available on <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><uri>https://github.com/tingsu/droiddefects</uri></i> .

A comprehensive assessment of bus rollover crashes: integration of multibody dynamic and finite element simulation methods

Rollover crashes have the highest fatality rate and exhibit complex and unpredictable mechanisms in terms of vehicle-ground and vehicle-occupant interactions. The objective of this study is to evaluate the tilt table and modified dolly rollover (MDR) crash tests in terms of how these crash tests can represent those interactions and compare their results with two real-world rollover crashes. An application of combined dynamic and finite element (FE) simulations was presented to assess the cutaway bus rollover crash. First, the numerical models were validated against the experimental MDR test. Then, two real-world rollover crashes were simulated in PC-Crash to find the kinematics of the bus prior to the first vehicle-to-roof impact phase. Next, the impact phase of these real-world crashes was simulated using LS-DYNA and the results were compared with the two rollover crash tests. The FE simulations were conducted using a 2-point belted 50th Hybrid III FE model. The results of this study indicate that the common impact mechanism among these rollover scenarios was the impact between the bus’s roof corner (roof connection to the sidewall) and ground which caused lateral deformation patterns. Furthermore, unlike passenger cars where the vertical roof deformation can cause severe injuries in rollover crashes, the intrusion of the bus’s passenger compartment was not identified as a main source of injury. In addition, the highest head, neck, and chest injury risk were predicted during the MDR simulation where the ATD was partially ejected through the side window. Lastly, possible future works and limitations were explained.