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ISO 26262 was established in 2011 as a functional safety standard for road vehicles. This standard provides safety requirements according to ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) in order to avoid unreasonable residual risk caused by malfunctioning behavior of electrical and/or electronic systems. The ASIL is determined by considering the estimate of three factors including injury severity. While applicable only to passenger cars at present, motorcycles will be included in the scope of application of ISO 26262 in the next revision. Therefore, our previous study focused on severity class evaluation for motorcycles. A method of classifying injury severity according to vehicle speed was developed on the basis of accident data. In addition, a severity table for motorcycles was created using accident data in representative collision configurations involved with motorcycles in Japan.

ISO 26262 was established in 2011 as a functional safety standard for passenger cars. In this standard, ASILs (Automotive Safety Integrity Levels) representing safety levels for passenger cars are determined by evaluating the hazardous events associated with each item constituting an electrical and/or electronic safety-related system according to three evaluation criteria including injury severity. On the other hand, motorcycles will be included in the scope of application of ISO 26262 in the next revision. It is expected that a severity evaluation for motorcycles will be needed because motorcycles are clearly different from passenger cars in vehicle mass and structure. Therefore, this study focused on severity class evaluation for motorcycles. A method of classifying injury severity according to vehicle speed was developed on the basis of accident data.

Test procedures to assess vehicle compatibility were investigated based on a series of crash tests. Structural interaction and compartment strength are significant for compatibility, and full-width tests and overload tests have been proposed to assess these key factors. Full-width rigid and deformable barrier test results were compared with respect to force distributions, structural deformation and dummy responses. In full-width deformable tests, forces from structures can be clearly shown in barrier force distributions. The average height of force (AHOF) determined in full rigid and deformable barrier tests were similar. From car-to-car tests, it was demonstrated that stiffening the compartment of small cars is an effective and direct way to improve compatibility. To evaluate the compartment strength, five overload tests were carried out. The rebound force is proposed as a compartment strength criterion.

The drive-recorder records automobile accidents and/or near-misses data. To realize the practical use of drive-recorders in automobiles, a fleet test was conducted on 202 cars and trucks that were in regular use on roads. Some of the tested drive-recorders were video drive-recorders (VDR) equipped with a video recording unit to obtain visual data on accidents and near-misses from the driver’s viewpoint. This was the first time for VDRs to be included in a fleet test on drive-recorders. During the fleet test period a total of 30 actual accidents occurred and were recorded, enabling the significance of adding a video recording unit to drive-recorders for obtaining useful data for accident analysis to be examined. It was found that the data collected by VDR enabled traffic accidents to be analyzed chronologically and quantitatively. It was therefore concluded that VDRs are an effective means of analyzing accidents in greater detail.