Ian Lau, Ph.D.
General Motors Corporation (Retired)
E-mail: lau@jhu.edu*


TITLE:

"Traffic Safety – the Driver, the Environment and the Vehicle"


ABSTRACT:

The fatality rate per vehicle-mile driven has been decreasing steadily,
but with steadily increasing vehicle miles driven, the total annual traffic
fatality has remained stubbornly high at above 40,000.  Driver behavior,
i.e., what the driver chooses to do, will remain the most important factor
that affects traffic safety.  The environment, including road design and
conditions, can affect traffic safety of all road users immediately.  The
design of the vehicle itself probably is the least important of the three
factors.  However, since the manufacturer is most responsible for the
design of its products, vehicle design will remain its principal focus.  For
the vehicle manufacturer, crash avoidance and crash protection is often
designed and analyzed separately.  Biomechanics is the foundation of all
crash protection designs.  The effectiveness of crash protection design is
measured by analytical or physical model of the human, which in turn are
based on the biomechanics of the mechanism of injury and the human
tolerance to traumatic stimuli.