Title: Experimental research on the differences in a driver's perception of objects from stationary and moving vehicles

Authors: Robert Kledus; Marek Semela; Albert Bradáč

Addresses: Institute of Forensic Engineering of Brno University of Technology, Údolní 244/53, Brno 602 00, Czech Republic ' Institute of Forensic Engineering of Brno University of Technology, Údolní 244/53, Brno 602 00, Czech Republic ' Institute of Forensic Engineering of Brno University of Technology, Údolní 244/53, Brno 602 00, Czech Republic

Abstract: The presented measurements reflect research dedicated to the issue of identifying a pedestrian in ordinary road traffic from a moving vehicle. This research is important for clarifying and assessing serious traffic accidents involving collisions between vehicles and pedestrians. Since experts can only measure the distance at which one can see a pedestrian from a stationary or slow moving vehicle, it is important to study the difference in perception of objects by drivers in stationary and moving vehicles. However, this necessary research has not so far been conducted. The reason is that there has been no suitable measurement method available that would enable the measurement of the distance between an object on the road and the vehicle at the moment when the driver perceives the object. This limitation has recently been overcome by using a device to measure the change in the driver's direction of vision. A special device developed by viewpointsystem^® GmbH, was used for this purpose. The distance between the vehicle and the pedestrian is subsequently determined from the vehicle's speed and the time taken to cover that distance. The results were obtained from extensive traffic tests conducted in close collaboration with the Institute of Forensic Engineering of the Brno University of Technology and the Austrian Research Institute EPIGUS - Institut für ganzheitliche Unfall- und Sicherheitforschung

Keywords: human factors; traffic accidents; accident analysis; pedestrians; range of visibility; driver perceptions; object distances; stationary vehicles; moving vehicles; vehicle collisions; vehicle-pedestrian collisions; vehicle speed; forensic engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFE.2012.050416

International Journal of Forensic Engineering, 2012 Vol.1 No.2, pp.167 - 182

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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