RESEARCH ON BEHAVIOUR OF DRIVERS IN ACCIDENT SITUATION CONDUCTED IN DRIVING SIMULATOR

Following any type of statistics, the human being (a driver) is the weakest element of the man - vehicle – environment system. The paper discusses research on drivers’ behaviours in pre-accident situations, conducted in driving simulator autoPW under the research project MNiSzW N509 016 31/1251. Tests have been performed in a staged situation of danger involving unexpected emergence of an roadblock - passenger car into the road area, with a simultaneous limitation of space for making a passing-by manoeuvre on the opposite traffic lane, which was caused by the fact that a delivery vehicle was approaching on the lane. The work presents issues that are related to the preparation of research scenario by realising vehicle traffic in the way assuring the probability of individual tests. Basic features of the autoPW car driver simulator have been characterised. The modifications, introduced in the simulator for purposes of the research, have been discussed. Selected research results – the probability diagrams of occurrence of a specific type of collision, depending on the so-called risk time (potential time that a driver has to avoid the collision), have been presented. The diagrams indicate a clear boundary beyond which avoidance of the collision becomes practically impossible. The results obtained have been compared to results of research being similar in their character, conducted in another research centre.