Traffic Safety Facts: Passenger Vehicles: 2008 Data

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Crump ◽  
Robyn Brinkerhoff ◽  
Douglas Young

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently published a final rule requiring lap/shoulder seat belts in all new large motorcoaches and buses manufactured on or after November 28, 2016 (NHTSA, 2013). Studies of vehicle belt use in passenger vehicles demonstrate that many factors other than availability influence whether a seat belt is used by an individual in a particular circumstance. The present observational study examined passenger seat belt use in airport shuttle buses traveling short distances over urban roads with frequent stops, in four U.S. cities. Seat belts were used very rarely when provided - only 1% (2 out of 156) of passengers buckled up. These findings are consistent with other studies of passenger seat belt use in motorcoach buses, and suggest that without concomitant legislation mandating and enforcing seat belt usage, the vast majority of bus passengers are unlikely to use seat belts even when provided.


Author(s):  
A Deb ◽  
K C Srinivas

The current paper describes a simple and yet comprehensive lumped-parameter model (LPM) for simulating the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) side-impact safety tests for passenger vehicles. The LPM includes new lumped masses, not previously reported in a single multibody model, for key vehicle side-structure systems identified with the help of an energy-based study conducted using explicit finite element analysis of two passenger vehicles. In addition to the vehicle side structure, lumped masses for the NHTSA side-impact barrier and ‘rest of vehicle’, the latter implying the mass of the vehicle minus the combined mass of the side-structure subsystems considered in the LPM, have been incorporated so that the total mass of the system corresponds to that of an actual vehicle—barrier system in a NHTSA side-impact test (Lateral Impact New Car Assessment Program (LINCAP) or FMVSS 214). The lumped masses are interconnected with elastic—plastic springs. A unique feature of the present model is the inclusion of two lumped side-impact dummies for obtaining predictions of the front and rear (thoracic trauma index (TTI)). The validity of the present LPM is established by performing LS-DYNA-based LINCAP simulations of two real-world vehicles, namely the Dodge Neon and Dodge Intrepid, and obtaining a reasonably good correlation of the computed structural and occupant responses as well as TTI (front and rear) with the corresponding test results reported by the NHTSA.


Author(s):  
Kevin T. Sterne ◽  
Joseph M. Ernst ◽  
Deirdre K. Kilcoyne ◽  
Alan J. Michaels ◽  
Geffrey Moy

Since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandated the incorporation of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs) in all newly produced passenger vehicles, most vehicle manufacturers have adopted direct pressure measurement. Direct TPMS sensors embedded in each tire require a wireless radio frequency (RF) communications link that broadcasts tire status to the vehicle once per minute from each tire when at speed. Each TPMS message communicates benign information that includes pressure and temperature as well as a static unique identifier that may be exploited, which raises concerns about privacy and spoofing. To focus on concerns related to the TPMS-RF interface, vehicle motion simulations were integrated with live propagation modeling measurements from three classes of passenger vehicles: subcompact car, full-size sedan, and full-size pickup. The RF link and channel models for this TPMS interface with the vehicle resulted in surprisingly long ranges away from the vehicle for the radiation of the unique identifiers. A TPMS sensor redesign could use the proposed RF channel propagation measurements to change the directions of signal propagation while reducing battery consumption by the TPMS sensor (which is affected primarily by RF transmission).


2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Iversen ◽  
Torbjørn Rundmo ◽  
Hroar Klempe

Abstract. The core aim of the present study is to compare the effects of a safety campaign and a behavior modification program on traffic safety. As is the case in community-based health promotion, the present study's approach of the attitude campaign was based on active participation of the group of recipients. One of the reasons why many attitude campaigns conducted previously have failed may be that they have been society-based public health programs. Both the interventions were carried out simultaneously among students aged 18-19 years in two Norwegian high schools (n = 342). At the first high school the intervention was behavior modification, at the second school a community-based attitude campaign was carried out. Baseline and posttest data on attitudes toward traffic safety and self-reported risk behavior were collected. The results showed that there was a significant total effect of the interventions although the effect depended on the type of intervention. There were significant differences in attitude and behavior only in the sample where the attitude campaign was carried out and no significant changes were found in the group of recipients of behavior modification.


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