The emphasis of accident research is in general placed in the field of passive safety, so that consideration is devoted to measures which reduce the consequences of an accident. Persuaded that accident avoidance is also needed to save more crash victims than new progress in passive safety, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has taken the initiative in launching a "European Accident Causation Survey" with the support of the European Commission and under the aegis of the European Road Safety Federation (ERSF). Thus, five partners from European countries (Germany, Italy, Finland, France) have been collaborating since March 1996 and are building up a data bank on the causes of accident based on a scientific in-depth investigation of the pre-crash phase. Although retrospective data collection will also feature in the work, it is thought that a "prospective study" based on a common questionnaire, prepared by these accident investigation experts, will provide more complete data about human, road, environment and traffic factors responsible for causing accidents. It is only through such a scientific accident investigation of the pre-crash phase, combining detailed technical aspects and driver behaviour data that it can be understood how and why accidents happen, and the effectiveness of solutions can be assessed in conjunction with full scale experiments and simulations. This paper describes the harmonized approach and methodology followed in this study to secure a reliable quantitative and qualitative understanding of the different phases of the crash.
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