In-depth Metropolitan Road Accident Database Development and Accident Analysis

It is inevitable that the members of our contemporary society must move and interact with road infrastructures and vehicles and this exposes them to the high risk of injuries and fatalities. Road safety recognizes this risk and the safety need for all road users involved in road traffic. Globally, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians are the road users most vulnerable and in high-income countries these types of accidents happened principally in urban areas. The aim of road safety is the elimination of fatal crashes and the reduction of serious injuries through the provision of a safe transport system that takes into account the possibility of human error and the vulnerability of people to serious injury. The approach most commonly employed for this purpose is the study of real-world road accidents, and more in particular, the in-depth investigation of the accidents. Through these investigations it is possible to discover the response of the vehicles and infrastructure to the crash as well as human behaviour and the injury mechanisms. This typology research is strongly recommended by the state-of-the-art of the road accident. The European Union recommends the development of new independent bodies as well as the use of comparable data sets. This is the leading motivation that defines the framework of the present research and the fact that there is a lack of in-depth data on road accidents coming from southern Europe compared to that of northern Europe. Accordingly, the in-depth investigation methodology is defined and the in-depth road accident database is described. Overall, a collection of 80 road accidents which principally occurred in urban areas have been studied. The main injury mechanisms and injury causes by road user types are described. An accident causation factor analysis on pedestrian and powered two-wheel users has been carried out. Finally, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the pedestrian protection system has been performed based on real-world data and a pilot demonstration project has been completed.