Establishing methods to understand human error at intersections.

This research is a practical approach being conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between human error and safety critical events in the road traffic system. Accidents at metropolitan intersections are the focus of this work as they are specific examples of complex design that involve increasingly demanding interactions between a driver and their environment. Research has suggested that accidents at intersections account for over 50 per cent of serious casualties in metropolitan Melbourne, and the trauma problem is generally resistant to common present-day solutions. This paper describes the approach that is being taken to understand contributory factors in intersection accidents and to inform a human error taxonomy. A key objective of this paper is to review the existing data sources that are being examined to understand the contributory factors for intersection accidents. These are described and reviewed with respect to their relevance and usefulness, and the ways in which these data can feed into the human error taxonomy are identified. Finally, the potential uses of the taxonomy, based on this data collection approach, including how the data can be analysed to highlight associations between factors, are commented upon. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E216178.