IVI - 3 Driving Conditions

Based on an analysis of crash statistics, the IVI addresses three driving conditions where there is the greatest opportunity to improve safety.

Normal Driving Conditions
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Distracted driving exploded as a major public issue in 2001. New York became the first State to enact legislation prohibiting use of handheld wireless telephones while driving, and dozens of other State legislatures considered bills to limit cell phone use behind the wheel. NHTSA Executive Director Robert L. Shelton told a House transportation subcommittee that cell phones have become a significant highway safety concern.

While the public debate revolved around in-vehicle use of wireless telephones, within the transportation community there is growing concern about the safe use of many other in-vehicle communication and information technologies that are coming on line, or are in development.

USDOT's past research highlights both the complexities of measuring driver distraction and the difficulties involved in trying to establish a causal link between driver distraction and crashes. Ongoing and future research will focus on documenting the relationships among in-vehicle technologies, behavior, and the increased risk of a crash. Highlights of this year's progress related to driver distraction issues are presented below.

Degraded Driving Conditions
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Reduced visibility, inclement weather, driver fatigue and other degraded driving conditions make crashes more likely to occur. By improving the driver's perception of the driving environment and the driver's perception of his or her own physical condition, technology can reduce the probability of a crash.

Through detailed analysis of the factors contributing to crashes, IVI research projects have identified promising solutions for the safety problems caused by degraded driving conditions. Work is now under way to demonstrate and evaluate these solutions.

Driver Condition Monitoring
NHTSA estimates that approximately 100,000 crashes each year are caused primarily by driver drowsiness or fatigue. In 1998, drowsiness and fatigue contributed to 1,400 crash-related fatalities. Driver fatigue is a factor in 18 percent of single-vehicle, large-truck fatal to lost driver performance studies,crashes, and in 3 to 6 percent of all fatal crashes involving large trucks.

Vision Enhancement
Approximately 39 percent of all crashes and 53 percent of fatal crashes occur at night or during other degraded visibility conditions, according to 1998 statistics. Reduced visibility is a factor in 2.5 million crashes a year, including 15,000 fatal crashes.

Imminent Crash Situations
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Four types of collisions account for nearly 80 percent of highway crashes: (1) intersection collisions; (2) rear-end collisions; (3) road departure collisions; and (4) lane change and merge collisions. USDOT has identified promising technology approaches for preventing each of these leading types of collisions, ranging from driver warning systems to vehicle control devices.

Rear-end Collision Warning System
Rear-end collisions account for approximately 1.8 million crashes annually, or approximately 28 percent of all crashes. In 1998, rear- end collisions resulted in 855,000 injuries and 1,570 fatalities.

Road Departure Collision Avoidance Systems
About 15 percent of crashes are single-vehicle road departure crashes. In 1998, more than 500,000 injuries and 13,000 fatalities resulted from 937,966 road departure crashes.

Lane-Change Collision Avoidance Systems
Lane change and merge crashes accounted for approximately 600,000 crashes in 1998, or roughly 10 percent of crashes. They occur most often on metropolitan arterial streets.

Intersection Collision Avoidance
Intersections are among the most dangerous locations on U.S. roads. Approximately 1.7 million crashes occurred at intersections in 1998 (2.7 percent of total crashes), causing more than 6,700 fatalities. Intersection collisions are complex problems. Deployment of intersection collision avoidance systems is thus a long-term objective.

Vehicle Stability
Commercial vehicle rollover crashes do not occur frequently, but when they do, they often are fatal. Fully half of large truck driver fatalities occur in trucks that roll over.

IVI Mission | 3 Driving Conditions | 4 Vehicle Platforms | 8 Major Problem Areas
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