Taxonomy and Size Assessments for Forward Impact Crashes Applicable to Forward Collision Warning Systems

This paper is the first in a series of papers describing the approach used to establish the benefit of forward collision warning systems and to identify the specific types of forward impact crashes that collision avoidance systems would be most effective in preventing or mitigating.

Classes were identified for forward impact events and then the population of each crash type was determined. Further analysis was performed on the 1992 General Estimates Systems electronic database to estimate the damage or loss associated with each crash type. Velocity distributions necessary for effectiveness models were also derived from the database.

Later papers will describe and present a methodology to use this classification approach in the development of a simulations program to further refine the population of events that could be prevented and/or the degree of mitigation attributable to a collision warning system.