ACCIDENTS AND NEAR-MISSES ANALYSIS BY USING VIDEO DRIVE-RECORDERS IN A FLEET TEST 2001-06-0001

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.