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Volpe Center Highlights - March 2000SafetyDirector's Notes |
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility |
Human and Natural Environment |
Volpe Staff Fly Piper Aztec to Demonstrate WAAS Prototype (FAA) From February 2 to 7, 2000, Mr. Alan Yost of the Operator Performance and Safety Analysis Division and Mr. Jack Giurleo of Bedford Associates participated in the commissioning working group for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) that was held in Arlington, Virginia, as part of a meeting of the Satellite Operations Integration Team (SOIT). Mr. Yost and Mr. Giurleo flew the Volpe Center's leased Piper Aztec to Virginia to provide demonstration flights of the prototype of the WAAS receiver to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sponsor and to other interested parties. The Satellite Program Office is funding the lease of the Piper Aztec in anticipation of flights later this fiscal year to support the WAAS Operational Readiness Evaluation (ORE). The ORE will examine the WAAS and its infrastructure, ensuring that it is safe and acceptable for general aviation and air carrier use. The ORE involves a flight scenario that was developed at the Volpe Center. The flight scenario attempts to use as much of the infrastructure of the WAAS as possible. It includes flight planning, departure, en route precision and on precision approaches, holding, arrival, and emergency procedures. As the flight crew flies the scenario, they will fill out a data collection form developed by the Volpe Center that will provide valuable feedback on the WAAS prototype.
ParametricStudies Support NHTSA Crashworthiness Research (NHTSA) Dr. Tom Trella of the Vehicle Crashworthiness Division met with Dr. Joseph Kanianthra, Director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Office of Vehicle Safety Research, and Ms. Randa Radwan Samaha of NHTSA's Crashworthiness Research Division on January 6, 2000, in Washington, D.C., to discuss the results of recent parametric studies of light truck impacts using finite element models that were conducted at the Volpe Center. Dr. Kanianthra presented the results at a Side Impact Working Group Meeting of the International Harmonization of Research Activities (IHRA) in Madrid, Spain, in early February 2000. The studies examine driver injuries in side collisions resulting from stiffness, weight, and bumper height changes in the striking light truck. The results showed that driver thorax responses in the struck vehicle increase when the striking vehicle has a higher front-end profile and increased weight. Driver pelvic responses might decrease or stay the same. These responses also were more pronounced when the striking vehicle is stiffer. The study was carried out using a model of the Ford Taurus as the struck vehicle and a model of a Moving Deformable Barrier (MDB) as the striking light truck. The MDB was configured to represent a Ford Explorer with different combinations of stiffness, weight, and bumper heights. The MDB struck the Ford Taurus at an angle of 90 degrees. The injuries to the Ford Taurus driver, represented by a finite element model of a Side Impact Dummy, were evaluated for a range of values of striking vehicle characteristics. Volpe Supports Motor Carrier Safety Screening (DOE) As the major shipper by highway of hazardous materials, including radioactive waste from nuclear energy production site cleanup, the Department of Energy (DOE) requires a rigorous procedure to determine prospective motor carrier contractor eligibility and selection and, in particular, to evaluate motor carrier safety. In 1999, the DOE initiated an interagency agreement with the Volpe Center to define and develop an improved Motor Carrier Evaluation Program (MCEP) process that would take advantage of the Center's expertise in carrier safety-status assessment and that would use a data-driven, automated system (SafeStat) which assesses the safety status of individual interstate motor carriers. Although SafeStat was developed by the Volpe Center for the DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to identify and prioritize interstate truck operators for on-site compliance reviews and possible enforcement action, its roots are in another Volpe Center interagency project conducted more than a decade ago for the Department of Defense (DoD). This project was called the Air Carrier Analysis System (ACAS), and it resulted in a safety performance measurement system for air carriers.
In January 2000, the DOE decided to proceed with the development of the improved SafeStat-supported MCEP evaluation process proposed by Mr. Donald Wright and Mr. David Madsen of the Economic Analysis Division. The proposed evaluation process includes initial screening, full evaluation, and monitoring of carriers to be considered as well as those in use. Mr. Wright and Mr. Madsen will develop the new evaluation process in collaboration with the DOE's Hanford site in Richland, Washington, for the DOE's National Transportation Program Office (DOE/NTP) Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Also in January 2000, a major milestone was reached in the development of the improved MCEP by linking traffic managers at DOE sites nationwide to SafeStat Online, thereby providing the DOE with Internet access to DOT's motor carrier SafeStat (safety status) evaluations. SafeStat Online now can be accessed on the Internet as a module of the Analysis and Information System (A&I) at http://www.ai.volpe.dot.gov. Volpe Staff Serves as Technical Expert for Arizona Superior Court (NHTSA) On February 14, 2000, Dr. Arthur Flores of the Safety and Environmental Technology Division served as a technical expert regarding breath tests for suspected drunk drivers at the Mohave County Courthouse in Kingman, Arizona. Currently, Arizona's alcohol testing program has come under fire by a variety of public defenders and other citizens for its accuracy and reliability. Dr. Flores' testimony, which was presented to the Superior Court of the state of Arizona, supported the accuracy and reliability of breath tests and breath test equipment that is being used by Arizona's Department of Public Safety. The Volpe Center has been studying techniques for measuring alcohol on the breath and in the blood of suspected drunk drivers in support of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Office of Traffic Injury Control Programs. This work includes evaluation of testing procedures and devices for breath alcohol, as well as the practices of national and international law enforcement agencies. The Center also oversees a blood-alcohol proficiency program, which is conducted by 250 independent laboratories across the United States. In 1998, according to statistics provided by NHTSA, 41,480 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes, 15,935 fatalities were alcohol-related (preliminary estimates). This represents an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 33 minutes. The 15,935 alcohol-related fatalities (38.4 percent of the total traffic fatalities for 1998) were the lowest reported since NHTSA began reporting these statistics in the 1970s. Statistics for 1999 are not yet available. |
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