The objectives of this study were to 1) identify current and future vehicle characteristics that are potentially incompatible with existing roadside safety hardware, 2) assess opportunities for and barriers to improved compatibility, and 3) increase the vehicle and hardware manufacturer's awareness of compatibility problems. This report presents the study results in five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction. In Chapter 2, real world crash data and case studies from the National Automotive Sampling System/Crashworthiness Data System and Fatality Analysis Reporting System databases are examined. In Chapter 3, vehicle characteristics and registrations are presented to identify changes in the vehicle fleet over the past ten years. Strategies to improve vehicle to roadside hardware compatibility are included in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 contains conclusions and suggestions for future research. This report may be accessed by Internet users at http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/nchrp/nchrp_w61.pdf
Samenvatting