Current Safety-Critical Scenarios for Car-to-Pedestrian crashes in the EU

At the heart of Vision Zero, taking the 'Safe Systems Approach' means that identifying the causal factors in crashes goes beyond the mistakes and errors made by road users, to consider systemic factors such as how infrastructure, the environment and different road user needs may interact to make crashes more likely.

With the publication of the SAFE-UP project's deliverable D2.6, 'Use case definitions and initial safety-critical scenarios', SAFE-UP researchers have provided an updated analysis of the CARE database to provide an overall picture of where and why drivers and pedestrians or cyclists have injury- (or death-) producing crashes.

An in-depth analysis of the GIDAS* database allowed us to take a deeper look at contributing factors in crash causality, such as infrastructure, poor weather and visibility conditions, and communication failures between car drivers and VRUs. This knowledge is important for developing targeted implementation of new safety technologies aimed to support road users and compensate for mistakes.

SAFE-UP's new infographic illustrates some of the results which address the following questions: Where do crashes happen most often with respect to infrastructure elements? What kinds of interactions are associated with the most frequent or most serious crashes?

Particularly relevant to the development of active safety and 'Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems' (C-ITS) solutions was the confirmation that crashes occur primarily away from junctions and where the crossing of pedestrians is not supported by the infrastructure (non-designated crossings). When only crash cases involving fatal and serious injury cases are considered, the frequency of crashes outside of intersections compared to other safety-critical scenarios is even higher.

*German In-Depth Accident Study

For more information, see here.