Traffic Accident Causation in Europe

TRACE Objectives were:

• The identification and the assessment (in terms of saved lives and avoided accidents), among possible technology-based safety functions, of the most promising solutions that can assist the driver or any other road users in a normal road situation or in an emergency situation or, as a last resort, mitigate the violence of crashes and protect the vehicle occupants, the pedestrians, and the two-wheelers in case of a crash or a rollover.
• The determination and the continuous up-dating of the aetiology, i.e. causes, of road accidents (as well as the causes of injuries) and the assessment of whether the existing technologies or the technologies under current development address the real needs of the road users inferred from the accident and driver behaviour analyses.

Scientific Project's Objectives:

The above two main orientations could be subdivided into several scientific objectives:

1. The definition of Accident Causation was unclear. Many factors influence a country's transportation safety level. These factors concern road safety policy, distribution and crashworthiness of the fleet, road network characteristics, human behaviour and attitudes, travel conditions, environment, etc. These issues were studied for decades and considerable prevention efforts were inferred from the analysis and comprehension of these factors. Nevertheless, further efforts are needed. These factors have to be studied together in order to provide a comprehensive and understandable definition of accident causation at the end of the project.
2. The second objective was to provide the scientific community, stakeholders, suppliers, the vehicle industry and the other Integrated Safety programme participants with a global overview of the road accident causation issues in Europe, and possibly overseas, based on the analysis of currently available databases which include accident, injury, insurance, medical and exposure data (including driver behavior in normal driving conditions). The aim was to identify, characterise and quantify the nature of risk factors, groups at risk, specific safety-related or risk-related societal issues, specific conflict driving situations and accident situations.
3. The third objective was to make this overview comprehensive, understandable and operational. Hence all aspects of safety would be taken into account in order to answer the following questions: