Recent crash events involving truck-mounted attenuators (TMAs) in New Zealand have prompted an industry-wide study into driver perception of, and reaction to, attenuator vehicles operating in work zones. As an indication of the size and extent of the problem, three of the major contractors have reported 39 hits on TMAs between them in the last 5 years alone. Although most vehicle occupants walked away uninjured, four fatalities have occurred. The research focused on mobile closures, the primary contributor to the above statistics, and consisted of two consecutive studies. The first study, reported in this paper, recorded and analysed driver reaction to a range of visual enhancement systems (VES) mounted on attenuator vehicles in a live operating environment during day and night. The second study, to be reported in a subsequent issue of Road and Transport Research, compared the best performers from this study with anew VES, incorporating a mobile advance warning system and representing overseas practice. Significant differences in performance were noted between the different visual enhancement systems, highlighting the need for uniformity to a high standard across the industry. The results of the research are expected to be incorporated into the Code of Practice for Temporary Traffic Management. (a).
Abstract