Kusano 1 POTENTIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF INTEGRATED FORWARD COLLISION WARNING, PRE- COLLISION BRAKE ASSIST, AND AUTOMATED PRE-COLLISION BRAKING SYSTEMS IN REAL- WORLD, REAR-END COLLISIONS

This study examines the potential effectiveness of a Pre-Collision System (PCS) that integrates Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Pre-crash Brake Assist (PBA), and autonomous Pre-crash Braking (PB). Real-world rear-end crashes were extracted from NASS/CDS years 1993 2008. The sample of 1,396 collisions, corresponding to 1.1 million crashes, was simulated as if the striking vehicle had been equipped with PCS. A stochastic framework was developed to account for the variability in driver response to the warning system. The result was an estimate of PCS benefits in terms of crash severity (change in velocity during the collision, ΔV), injury reduction for drivers, and prevented collisions. The results indicate that PCS reduced the median ΔV by 34%. The number of moderately to fatally injured drivers wearing their seat belt was reduced by 50%. Finally, 7.7% of collisions were prevented.