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Volpe Center Highlights - July 1999SafetyDirector's Notes |
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility |
Human and Natural Environment |
Vehicle Safety, Aggressivity, and Crashworthiness Presentation (NHTSA) Mr. George Neat, Chief of the Vehicle Crashworthiness Division, in support of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)'s Office of Research and Development, recently gave a presentation on vehicle aggressivity and fleet compatibility work. The presentation took place at the joint meeting of the European Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Committee (EEVC) Working Group and the International Harmonization of Research Activities (IHRA) Working Group on Vehicle Compatibility, held in Berlin, Germany. This work investigates the safety implications of having a wide variety of cars ranging from compacts to sport-utility vehicles in a particular fleet. The presentation included a status report on vehicle aggressivity measurement research at the Volpe Center that uses a measurement process developed by the Spanish Research Institute. Mr. Neat also reported on the results of 12 vehicle crashworthiness models that are being evaluated by the Volpe Center. Draft Recommendations to Improve Railroad Worker Safety (FRA) A member of the Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis (SOFA) Committee, Mr. David Skinner, of the Operations Performance and Safety Analysis Division, attended a SOFA meeting hosted by the United Transportation Union in St. Louis, MO. The SOFA Committee, composed of safety and operations experts from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the American Association of Railroads (AAR), and the private sector, has been analyzing the 76 fatalities that occurred from January 1, 1992 to July 1, 1998 among railroad workers engaged in switching, coupling, and classification operations. The goal is to eliminate the 7 to 15 fatalities that, on average, occur each year. The Committee drafted several recommendations to improve safety among railroad workers, assisted by the Volpe Center's research on railroad worker safety, which has underscored the importance of human factor issues: crew utilization, intra-crew communications, proper radio protocols, rule violations, situational awareness, and job briefings. Volpe research has helped to identify trends in specific types of fatalities. Two additional SOFA Committee meetings are scheduled over the next two months, at which additional recommendations will be drafted to improve railroad worker safety. International Meeting on Fixed Guideway Ride Motion (FRA) As part of the support provided to the FRA's Office of Research and Development, several Volpe Center staff members participated in the meeting of the International Organization for Standardization's Subcommittee on the Evaluation of Human Exposure to Mechanical Shock and Vibration (ISO/TC108 SC4), recently held in Montreal, Quebec. Dr. Don Sussman, Chief of the Operator Performance and Safety Analysis Division, convened the working group responsible for establishing a new standard for the evaluation of rail and fixed guideway ride motions. Dr. Bob DiSario, of the same division, served as a technical expert on ride statistics within that group. Mr. Herb Gould, of the Office of Safety and Security, served as a technical expert on the health impacts of repeated mechanical shocks, and participated in the working group responsible for developing methods of evaluating the health impacts of repeated shocks. A major accomplishment of the meeting was to elevate the committee draft on fixed guideway ride motion (developed under the leadership of the Volpe Center and the FRA) to a new "Draft International Standard." Delegates from most of the major Western European and North American industrial nations attended, as well as representatives from Japan, Poland and the Czech Republic. |
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