Using Systems Analysis to Improve Traffic Safety

Despite the efforts of driver’s training and other safety programs to make U.S. highways and roads safe, thousands of U.S. citizens are killed each year in traffic accidents that could have been prevented. A similar problem exists in the U.S. Army where several hundred soldiers have been killed in the last decade in preventable combat vehicle accidents while on operational deployments around the world. This study shows how System Dynamics analysis can be used to better understand the complex root causes of vehicle accidents. It shows how this approach has been used to better understand and predict non-combat related vehicle accidents in Iraq and how it can be used to explain how and why individual accidents take place. Finally, suggestions are provided as to how lessons learned from the modeling and study of combat vehicle accidents in the U.S. Army can be used to model, simulate, analyze and understand various aspects of vehicle safety on U.S. civilian roads and highways.