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The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, US

Frank L Roediger

Purpose and scope

The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) was set up in 1965 by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly. The Center was established to fulfil the need for an in-state organization that could conduct research, evaluate North Carolina’s highway safety programmes, and conduct teaching and training programmes to facilitate the assimilation of research findings into safety efforts. In the nearly 15 years that it has been in operation, HSRC has ex- panded its role to include performing these functions on a national level as well.

Much of HSRC’s activity is related to analysis of computerized mass traffic acci- dent data records. One of the reasons that HSRC is able to concentrate its efforts in this area is because of the highly evolved state of North Carolina’s tyaffic accident records system. The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles has been storing reports of North Carolina traffic accidents on magnetic tape since 1965 and has ac- cumulated information on almost 1.5 million accidents and over 2.75 million accident-involved vehicles. The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles also maintains computerized files for vehicle registration records and driver licence records, both of which are also available to HSRC for research purposes.

Although much of HSRC’s research efforts are devoted to developing and assess- ing the effectiveness of driver/occupant-related highway safety programmes, the Center also conducts evaluation research that applies to vehicle and roadway pro- grammes. Listed below are some of HSRC’s recent research and evaluation efforts in these three areas of highway safety research.

Research and evaluation

A. Driver/occupant

Techniques for predicting high risk drivers for alcohol countermeasures

Drivers who drink are a serious highway hazard: one-half of all fatal crashes involve drivers with blood alcohol concentrations greater than the legal limit. Under a con- tract with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), HSRC sought ways to reduce drinking drivers’ involvement in traffic accidents. The pro- ject’s first task was to develop predictive models that could identify drivers who have an elevated risk of being involved in alcohol-related crashes. Using North Carolina’s computerized Accident and Driver History Files and data from the North Carolina Department of Human Resources and the North Carolina Department of Correction, HSRC identified six categories of drivers that were over-represented in alcohol related crashes. HSRC further identified groups of drivers within the six categories that were even more greatly over-represented. The project’s second task was to review existing countermeasure programmes and identify the ones most likely to reduce alcohol related crashes in high-risk individuals identified by the predictive models developed in this project.

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Requirements analysis for heavy vehicle driver licensing

Because the tasks associated with driving a large truck are unique to that type of vehicle, efforts are currently being made to establish this area as a licensing category. HSRC has been working under an NHTSA contract to define licensing re- quirements that drivers of heavy trucks should meet. After reviewing the ap- propriate research literature and examining the existing accident data, the Center sought to determine the most effective procedures for licensing truck drivers by reviewing the licensing and medical screening procedures currently in use. The pro- ject’s other tasks included examining the feasibility of a Federal driver licence for all drivers of commercial vehicles and developing a licensing programme for the operators of commercial vehicles.

B. Vehicle

Studies of driver injury by make/rnodel

HSRC pioneered vehicle crash studies that compared the accident performance of specific makes and models of passenger cars. The first of these studies, conducted by HSRC Director, B.J. Campbell in 1970, examined the relative crashworthiness of different cars by comparing driver injury vs. vehicle age for various makes and models. In the process of carrying out this analysis, HSRC had to develop a new statistical methodology tailored to the problems inherent in this study. HSRC has done two updates of this study.

Besides these pioneering studies, HSRC has conducted other make and-model- specific comparisons of the experience of passenger cars in accidents. One set of these studies has concentrated more on the vehicle’s weight as the primary factor. Another series of studies examined the likelihood of specific makes and models be- ing involved in an accident.

An analysis of mopeds as a potential safety problem in the United States

Highway safety professionals are concerned that the recent dramatic increases in the popularity of mopeds might be accompanied by even more dramatic increases in in- juries to moped riders. HSRC, working under an NHTSA contract, is trying to determine whether these hybrid vehicles are likely to become a significant safety pro- blem. As part of its efforts to forecast moped accident trends, HSRC has: 1) review- ed over 100 moped studies to determine the state-of-the-art in moped safety research and the current status of laws and regulations governing the operation of mopeds; 2) analyzed available moped accident data to establish the characteristics of moped mishaps; and 3) surveyed the major moped manufacturers to ascertain from future sales projections estimates of the number of mopeds that will be in use over the next 10 years. From the information it is gathering, HSRC will recommend research ef- forts that should be taken to alleviate a potential moped safety problem in the USA.

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C . Roadway

High way safety improvements rhough utilization of merged accident and roadway data

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has numerous computerized data files. Because most of these files are independent, the information in them had to be merged by hand or by special programming. As the demand for the retrieval of information common to two or more of these files grew, it became evident that a more efficient means of cross-referencing these data was needed. Accordingly, HSRC, working under contract to the North Carolina Division of Highways, developed a computer system to link up the Division’s Accident Record, Roadway Characteristics, Railroad Grade Crossing, Structures (bridges and overhead signs) and Skid Number Files so that information could be retrieved from them more effi- ciently.

Roadside hazards eliminarion

HSRC developed another computerized system to enable traffic engineers in the North Carolina Division of Highways to establish priorities to follow in their efforts to eliminate fixed-object roadside hazards. The system calculates the potential benefits that can be realized from improvements made to eight types of fixed ob- jects. The traffic engineers provide the system with: 1) the frequency and severity of the affectable accidents for a given hazard/treatment combination; 2) the projected reductions in fatal, injury, and property-damage-only accidents attributable to the proposed treatment; and 3) the total costs for the treatment’s service life. From these inputs, the system provides the traffic engineer with a priority ranking of the pro- posed treatments based on their respective Net Discounted Present Values and Benefit/Cost Ratios.

Teaching and training programme

HSRC also conducts teaching and training programmes. Listed below are some of the Center’s educational efforts in highway safety’s three principal areas.

A . Driver/Occupant

Molorcycle teaching training sessions

Since 1 January 1978, North Carolina residents who apply for an original or renewal operator’s licence and wjsh to operate a motorcycle have had to take special written and skill tests in motorcycling. HSRC, under a contract from the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program, was instrumental in developing and implementing these tests. The Center, working with the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, developed written exams for motorcycle licence applicants and checked the psychometric validity of these tests. HSRC also developed the seven- manoeuvre off-road skill test that measures applicants’ mastery of the basic skills needed to operate a motorcycle. After helping the North Carolina Division of Motor

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Vehicles develop the written and skill test, HSRC and representatives from the Divi- sion of Motor Vehicles conducted orientation and training sessions for driver licence examiners at eight locations across the state during the fall of 1977.

B. Vehicle

Child restrainf workshop

During the spring of 1979, HSRC conducted a series of ten child restraint workshops for NHTSA. The workshops, which were held in each of the NHTSA regions, were designed to encourage grassroots support for efforts to increase child restraint usage. The workshop participants included representatives of organizations that were already involved in promoting child restraint usage and individuals (such as physicians and public health personnel) who were not yet actively involved but are in a position to exert a positive influence. Each workshop session lasted two days and included discussion of the problem of unrestrained children, presentation of crash- test research films, demonstrations of how to secure the child within the restraint device and the restraint device within the vehicle, description of the three pro- gramme approaches currently being used (education, distribution, and legisla- tion/regulation), and a comprehensive review of all the workshop’s content. Each workshop participant received a packet of information and education materials that HSRC developed, and a copy of the Physicians for Automotive Safety’s 16 mm film, ‘Don’t Risk Your Child’s Life’.

C. Roadway

High way accident research manual and workshop

One of the most difficult tasks in highway safety improvement efforts is determining which programmes are worthwhile. Making it difficult to assess programme effec- tiveness are many factors, including statistical phenomena (e.g. regression to the mean), bureaucratic obstacles (e.g. administrators who already ‘know’ a pro- gramme’s effectiveness), and procedural errors (e.g. omitting pertinent data or in- cluding inappropriate data). To help highway engineers make their way through this confusing maze of obstacles, HSRC, under a contract from the Federal Highway Administration, developed a manual covering the various pitfalls of evaluation, and field tested a draft of the manual at an FHWA workshop. Based upon the assessments of the workshop’s participants, HSRC is making revisions in the manual before publishing the final draft.

Forfurfher information contact: Frank L. Roediger, Information and Communica- tions Specialist, The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514 USA.