Study on driver's active emergency response in dangerous traffic scenes based on driving simulator

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics and Human Factors
• Automotive Safety Engineering
• Traffic Accident Analysis

Background:

• Driver's active emergency response is critical in mitigating collision injuries.
• Understanding non-standard postures during collisions is essential for injury analysis.
• Previous research lacks detailed quantitative data on active emergency responses in varied collision scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and quantify driver's active emergency responses in different inevitable collision scenes.
• To establish a prerequisite for studying human collision injury under non-standard postures.
• To analyze differences in active emergency responses between male and female drivers.

Main Methods:

• Developed a driving simulator integrated with high-speed cameras and physiological signal acquisition.
• Created three distinct collision scenarios: frontal, side, and rear-end impacts.
• Recruited twenty participants (15 male, 5 female) to record and analyze their active emergency responses.

Main Results:

• Drivers actively rotate the steering wheel and tilt their upper body during emergency responses.
• Male drivers demonstrated significantly greater steering wheel rotation angles (59.98°) and grip forces (280.5 N) than female drivers (44.28°, 192.5 N).
• Male participants also applied greater brake pedal pressure and exhibited quicker foot transitions from accelerator to brake.

Conclusions:

• Driver's active emergency responses vary significantly across different collision types.
• Quantitative data on driver responses provides crucial insights for future human injury analysis in vehicle collisions.
• Observed gender-based differences in active emergency responses warrant further investigation in automotive safety.