scholarly journals Escape Worthiness of Vehicles with Passive Belt Restraint Systems

1994 ◽  
Vol 38 (14) ◽  
pp. 893-897
Author(s):  
Edmundo Rodarte ◽  
Jerry L. Purswell ◽  
Robert Schlegel ◽  
Richard F. Krenek
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Restraint System ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
Escape Route ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Passive Restraint ◽  
The Times ◽  
Time Required ◽  
The Impact

There are a variety of conditions that can exist in the post-crash environment which make rapid escape necessary for survival or to avoid further injury. These include a post-crash fire, the vehicle going into the water, or avoiding being struck in a secondary collision. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has defined this parameter vehicle escapeworthiness. It has been estimated in past research performed by the author for NHTSA that escapeworthiness becomes important in up to 7% of all vehicle crashes. Since escapeworthiness research was performed in the early 1970's, the advent of passive shoulder belt systems has made it necessary to again review the impact of this development on escapeworthiness. In particular, the inability of the occupants to release the passive restraint because the door cannot be opened after the crash, coupled with the inability to release the passive restraint due to its design or a lack of experience, or knowledge of how to release the passive restraint while the door is closed, creates a serious problem. Thus, the present study was performed to investigate the impact of passive restraint systems on the time required to escape from the vehicle under various conditions of available escape routes, and physical condition of the occupants. The experimental design included the variables of age, gender, escape route, level of incapacitation and type of passive restraint system. The times to effect an escape as well as the method of escaping were determined through videographic analysis of all escape trials. The findings demonstrated that the use of passive restraint systems increased the time to escape significantly, ranging from 37 to 65 percent for the respective conditions. This difference may determine whether a person survives or not after some post-crash conditions. The results have significance for the design of passive restraint systems for easy release, while at the same time not creating an incentive for some users to routinely leave the passive restraint unfastened.

A Commented Synopsis of the Report of the Committee for the National Tire Efficiency Study4

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Marion G. Pottinger ◽  
Joseph D. Walter ◽  
John D. Eagleburger
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Rolling Resistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Scrap Tire ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Fuel Savings ◽  
Time Required

Abstract The Congress of the United States petitioned the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences to study replacement passenger car tire rolling resistance in 2005 with funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The study was initiated to assess the potential for reduction in replacement tire rolling resistance to yield fuel savings. The time required to realize these savings is less than the time required for automotive and light truck fleet replacement. Congress recognized that other factors besides fuel savings had to be considered if the committee’s advice was to be a reasonable guide for public policy. Therefore, the study simultaneously considered the effect of potential rolling resistance reductions in replacement tires on fuel consumption, wear life, scrap tire generation, traffic safety, and consumer spending for tires and fuel. This paper summarizes the committee’s report issued in 2006. The authors, who were members of the multidisciplinary committee, also provide comments regarding technical difficulties encountered in the committee’s work and ideas for alleviating these difficulties in further studies of this kind. The authors’ comments are clearly differentiated so that these comments will not be confused with findings, conclusions, and recommendations developed by the committee and contained in its final report.

scholarly journals Impact of CARB’s Tailpipe Emission Standard Policy on CO2 Reduction among the U.S. States

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaewon Lim ◽  
DooHwan Won
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Co2 Reduction ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
Emission Standard ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Policy Effect ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set the nationwide emission standard policy, but each state in the U.S. has an option to follow the higher emission standard policy set by CARB (California Air Resources Board) in 2004. There are 14 “CARB states” that follow California’s more restrictive standards. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of CARB’s tailpipe emission standard policy. Using the panel dataset for 49 U.S. states over a 28-year study period (1987–2015), this paper found the long-term policy effect in reducing CO2 emission from CARB’s tailpipe standard, and its long-run effect is 5.4 times higher than the short-run effect. The equivalent policy effect of the CARB emission standard in CO2 reduction can be achieved by raising gasoline price by 145.43%. Also, if 26.0% of petroleum consumed for transportation is substituted by alternative clean fuels (natural gas or electricity), it will have a comparable policy effect in CO2 reduction. Findings in this study support to continue the collaborative efforts among the EPA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and California in order to achieve the CO2 reduction goal set by CARB and adopted by the EPA in 2012. The packaged policy approach rooted in persistent public and political support is necessary for successful policy implementation.

Consumer safety complaints and organizational learning: evidence from the automotive industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 2094-2118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sourish Sarkar ◽  
Balaji Rajagopalan
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Value Of Information ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
Radical Product ◽  
Data Set ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Safety ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of information in consumer safety complaints for organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach Empirical analysis of this study uses a novel secondary data set, which is formed by combining complaints data filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for potential safety defects, and design change information from 2003 to 2011 model-year vehicles in the USA. Findings First, the paper demonstrates the value of information embedded in complaints. Second, in the case of radical product redesigns, owing to the lack of direct applicability of consumer feedback based learning, the impact of learning on product safety is found to be muted, third, the results suggest that the safety complaint rates vary by vehicle classes/categories and, fourth, the findings differ from prior research conclusions on vehicle quality. Prior research finds the debuting car models have the lowest repair rates among all car models produced in a given year, but the current study finds the debuting models to have the highest rates of safety complaints. Originality/value Quality management literature rarely examines the safety complaints data (which, unlike other consumer feedbacks, focuses exclusively on the safety hazards due to flaws that result in accidents). This paper fills the gap in literature by linking safety complaints with future product quality and organizational learning.

Forensic Analysis of Belt Use Evidence in Rollover Crashes: A Methodology

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven E. Meyer ◽  
Davis A. Hock ◽  
Arin A. Oliver ◽  
Brian R. Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Forensic Analysis ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Restraint System ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Multiple Impact

Recent advances in occupant protection systems have brought many new restraint technologies into our motor vehicles. These technologies include belt integrated restraints, various types of load limiters, webclamping devices and pretentioners. Additionally, recent developments in predictive roll sensor technologies have led to an increased use of rollover activated side curtain type airbags and rollover activated pretensioners. Moreover, recent upgrades and research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the roof crush resistance standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 216, as well as developing an ejection mitigation standard (FMVSS 226) will likely lead to an increased focus on restraint system performance in rollovers. Post crash analysis of various restraint system components is oftentimes necessary for evaluation of a particular restraint system’s use and performance in a given crash circumstance. With the addition of these new technologies, together with an increased frequency of rollover crashes seen in the last many years, specific techniques, protocols and methodologies for evaluating belt use evidence in these multiple impact, often times chaotic, rollover events is necessary. The subject paper reviews previous work regarding analysis of belt use evidence and expands upon those studies to include specific consideration of the current restraint system technologies and how they affect the forensic evidence left behind after a rollover crash. Real-world case examples and a systematic methodology for analysis of belt evidence in rollover crashes is presented along with photographic examples and laboratory supported quantification of associated belt loads.

scholarly journals IMPACT FORCE OF FLOOD-BORNE VEHICLES

2018 ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Hideki Kaida ◽  
Naoto Kihara ◽  
Daisuke Takabatake
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Structural Damage ◽  
Impact Force ◽  
Axial Stiffness ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Vehicle Impact ◽  
Shipping Containers ◽  
Hurricane Storm Surge ◽  
The Impact

Tsunami, hurricane storm surge, and waves generate debris such as shipping containers, wood logs, and vehicles. Impact forces exerted on structures in the inundation zone by such debris might result in severe structural damage of structures. Thus, reliable prediction of debris impact force is essential for the safe design and risk assessment of structures in the inundation zone. In this study, we carried out full-scale air-borne and flood-borne vehicle impact experiments. The experimental results enable characterization of the vehicle impact and prove the applicability of a theoretical equation (Haehnel and Daly, (2004)) in which the impact force of debris is estimated by using the impact velocity, axial stiffness, and mass of the debris. In addition, by analyzing NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)’s experimental data, a list of axial stiffness for various types of vehicles was constructed, which is important in predicting the flood-borne vehicle impact force.

scholarly journals Investigation of the Relationship between Rainfall and Fatal Crashes in Texas, 1994–2018

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 7976
Author(s):  
Zhongyu Han ◽  
Hatim O. Sharif
Keyword(s):  
Relative Risk ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Speed Limit ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Fatal Crash ◽  
Fatal Crashes ◽  
The Impact

Understanding how crash factors are impacted by rain is critical to road safety planning and management. This study assesses the impact of rain on traffic safety by conducting an analysis of the fatal crashes related to rain in Texas from 1994 to 2018. The fatal crash data was gathered from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Environmental variables used in the analysis include month of the year, time of the day, temperature, and weather condition. The roadway-related factors identified include the posted speed limit, the number of lanes, route sign, and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). The driver-related factors identified include age, gender, and the number of licensed drivers in total. Relative risk analysis was performed to statistically quantify the impact of rainy conditions at the hourly and monthly time scales. On average, rain-related fatal crashes represented about 6.8% of the total fatal crashes. However, the proportion shows higher variability at the annual, monthly, and hourly time scales and seems to be influenced by other factors such as the age and gender of the driver, type of the road, and posted roadway speed limit. Total and rain-related crashes show statistically significant decreasing trends when normalized by the total number of licensed drivers or vehicle miles travelled. The relative risk of a fatal crash during rainy conditions was always greater than 1.0 at hourly, monthly, and annual time scales. However, it shows significant variability at the monthly (1.07 to 2.78) and hourly scales (1.35 to 2.57). The relative risk is higher in less urbanized and drier counties, in general. Gender and age analysis reveals that male and young drivers are more likely to be involved in a fatal crash but less likely to be killed in the crash.

Distribution of Speed and Acceleration on a Tread Wear Course

1981 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Ludwig ◽  
F. C. Brenner
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Highway Traffic ◽  
National Highway Traffic Safety ◽  
Level Crossings ◽  
Acceleration Level ◽  
Longitudinal Acceleration ◽  
Acceleration Data ◽  
National Highway

Abstract Belted bias and radial Course Monitoring Tires were run over the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tread wear course at San Angelo on a vehicle instrumented to measure lateral and longitudinal accelerations, speed, and number of wheel rotations. The data were recorded as histograms. The distribution of speed, the distributions of lateral and longitudinal acceleration, and the number of acceleration level crossings are given. Acceleration data for segments of the course are also given.

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