The European programme PROMETHEUS makes provision for widespread vehicle computerisation, which should provide a substantial increase in safety, traffic flow and comfort, together with a decrease in pollution. To achieve this, 23 major functions were identified with the specific aim of defining the objectives to be met by the different contracting parties involved in the programme. Of these functions, 14 are linked directly to safety. In theory, they should be able to prevent almost all accidents. In practice, however, not all these functions will become operational and the implications of each one should be determined. To do so, a study was made of 3500 accident reports, a 1/50th representative sample of the number of accidents which occurred in France in 1989. Work was carried out in two stages. Firstly, to determine driver needs with regard to information and assistance; working from accident reports, a case by case investigation was performed so as to pin-point the needs of the different road users involved. Secondly, a case by case study was carried out to find out whether PROMETHEUS functions are able to satisfy the previously identified needs. Two data sources were used: (1) the Salon-de-Provence accident study data bank (see IRRD 826382); and (2) the INRETS 1/50 accident report file as described by Fontaine, H. et al. "Constitution d'une base de données sur les accidents corporels, année 1989". For the covering abstract of the seminar see IRRD 854762.
Samenvatting