Analyzing ' human functional failures ' in road accidents

Most safety studies come to the conclusion that human error is the main cause of accidents. Nevertheless, such a conclusion has not proved to be efficient in its capacity to offer adequate means to fight again this error. In a purpose of better qualifying accident causation in TRACE, so-called 'human error' is analyzed here from literature review and in-depth accident data with the aim of going further than such a simple statement. The present report is aimed at investigating the different types of 'errors' with the help of a classification model formalizing typical 'Human Functional Failures' (HFF) involved in road accidents. These failures are not seen as the causes of road accidents, but as the result of the driving system malfunctions which can be found in its components (user/road/vehicle) and their defective interactions (unfitness of an element with another). Such a view tries to extend 'accident causation' analysis toward understanding, not only the causes, but also the processes involved in the accident production. So the purpose is to go further than establishing the facts, toward making a diagnosis on their production process. The usefulness of this diagnosis is to help defining countermeasures suited to the malfunction processes in question. This report D5.1, addressed to human functional failures, is in strong connection with Trace report D5.2 devoted to the factors (human and others) and situations of these failures. Trace deliverable D5.3 stresses the most recurrent typical scenarios in which the human functional failures are found. D5.4 is enlarging the questioning of 'human factors' from the side of sociological and cultural backgrounds determining accidental driving behaviour. All these reports are parts of WP5, whose main objective is to provide operational Work Packages of TRACE project with methodological support concerning 'human factors' aspects involved in road accidents. Keyword list: Human error Human factors Accident study Ergonomics Cognitive Psychology

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