Citation

Cullinane B, Green P. Accid. Reconstr. J. 2011; 21(2).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Accident Reconstruction Journal)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article, part one of a two-part series, reports on a study of a program designed to address the visual demand of curves and fog-limited sight distance and its relationship to brake response time. The authors describe the SAVE-IT program which is designed to mitigate distraction with effective countermeasures and to enhance the effectiveness of safety warning systems in vehicles. The closed-loop vehicle environment measures the driver's state, assesses situational threats, prioritizes information presentation, provides adaptive countermeasures to minimize distraction, and optimizes advanced collision warning. This report is part of a major, federally-funded project to develop a workload manager prototype to reduce distraction-related crashes, primarily rear-end crashes. In the study, to determine the relationship between visual demand and brake response time, subjects drove a two-lane rural road in the UMTRI simulator, sometimes following a lead vehicle that braked. The road consisted of straight and curved sections with varying sight distances (due to fog) and therefore visual demand varied. Visual demand was measured using the visual occlusion method and by ratings. The study found that brake reaction time (RT) is more directly related to crash performance because it represents when the vehicle velocity changes substantially in response to driver input. However, throttle RT could prove more highly correlated with factors influencing driver response than brake RT. Part II of this article is in the May/June 2011 issue. Readers are referred to the full National Technical Information Service (NTIS) report at www.ntis.gov.


Keywords: Driver distraction;