Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems have been deployed in mass-produced vehicles in Europe (Golf 8, ID.3, etc.) since 2019, promising major improvements in vehicle safety, efficiency, and comfort. Equipped with Vehicle-to-X communication, the vehicles directly send information about their driving status to the environment. The data are already used for many Vehicle-to-X communication use-cases specified by the Car-2-Car Communication Consortium to achieve the above-mentioned improvements. This study focuses on using Vehicle-2-X communication and its messages for accident analysis. For this purpose, we investigated the advantage in temporal resolution of the continuously sent Cooperative Awareness Message compared to the Event-Data-Recorder for accident reconstruction in the pre-crash. A high resolution of the temporal accident scene is essential for the doubtless clarification of accidents. Therefore, we analyzed the generation frequencies and the trigger conditions of the Cooperative Awareness Message of vehicles available on the European market while driving in real traffic and during different parking maneuvers. Also, the pseudonym change was analyzed. We found that the average generation frequency of the Cooperative Awareness Message is higher than the 2.00 Hz recording frequency of the event data recorder for all scenarios investigated. Especially on rural roads and highways, the temporal resolution is advantageous. Since many serious accidents occur on rural roads, the use of Cooperative Awareness Messages could significantly benefit the reconstruction of the accident scene. Thus, we recommend increasing efforts to use the Cooperative Awareness Message as digital data for accident analysis and encourage more scientists to deal with this topic.

Cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITSs) are mass-produced and sold in Europe, promising enhanced safety and comfort. Direct vehicle communication, known as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, is crucial in this context. Drivers receive warnings about potential hazards by exchanging vehicle status and environmental data with other communication-enabled vehicles. However, the impact of these warnings on drivers and their inclusion in accident reconstruction remains uncertain. Unlike sensor-based warnings, V2X warnings may not provide a visible reason for the alert, potentially affecting reaction times and behavior. In this work, a simulator study on V2X warnings was conducted with 32 participants to generate findings on reaction times and behavior for accident reconstruction in connection with these systems. Two scenarios from the Car-2-Car Communication Consortium were implemented: “Stationary Vehicle Warning—Broken-Down Vehicle” and “Dangerous Situation—Electronic Emergency Brake Lights”. Volkswagen’s warning concept was utilized, as they are the sole provider of cooperative vehicles in Europe. Results show that V2X warnings without visible reasons did not negatively impact reaction times or behavior, with average reaction times between 0.58 s (steering) and 0.69 s (braking). No significant distraction or search for warning reasons was observed. However, additional information in the warnings caused confusion and was seldom noticed by subjects. In this study, participants responded correctly and appropriately to the shown false-positive warnings. A wrong reaction triggering an accident is possible but unlikely. Overall, V2X warnings showed no negative impacts compared with sensor-based systems. This means that there are no differences in accident reconstruction regarding the source of the warning (sensors or communication). However, it is important that it is known that there was a warning, which is why the occurrence of V2X warnings should also be saved in the EDR in the future.

Partially automated driving functions (SAE Level 2) can control a vehicle’s longitudinal and lateral movements. However, taking over the driving task involves automation risks that the driver must manage. In severe accidents, the driver’s ability to avoid a collision must be assessed, considering their expected reaction behavior. The primary goal of this study is to generate essential data on driver reaction behavior in case of malfunctions in partially automated driving functions for use in legal affairs. A simulator study with two scenarios involving 32 subjects was conducted for this purpose. The first scenario investigated driver reactions to system limitations during cornering. The results show that none of the subjects could avoid leaving their lane and moving into the oncoming lane and, therefore, could not control the situation safely. Due to partial automation, we could also identify a new part of the reaction time, the hands-on time, which leads to increased steering reaction times of 1.18 to 1.74 s. The second scenario examined driver responses to phantom braking caused by AEBS. We found that 25 of the 32 subjects could not override the phantom braking by pressing the accelerator pedal, although 16 subjects were informed about the system analog to the actual vehicle manuals. Overall, the study suggests that the current legal perspective on vehicle control and the expected driver reaction behavior for accident avoidance should be reconsidered.

The derivation of real accident scenarios from accident databases represents an important task within vehicle safety research. Simulations are increasingly used for this purpose. Depending on the research interest, a wide range of accident databases exists worldwide, which differ mainly in the number of recorded data per accident and availability. This work aims to identify critical vehicle-to-vehicle accidents based on freely available accident databases to derive concrete scenarios for a subsequent simulation. For this purpose, the method of the pre-crash matrix is applied using the example of the freely available Crash Investigation Sampling System database of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. An analysis of existing databases worldwide shows that this is the most detailed, freely available database. The derivation of scenarios succeeds here by a new method, whereby a center of gravity calculation is carried out based on the damages of the vehicles according to Collision Deformation Classification nomenclature. In addition, the determination of other necessary parameters, as well as the limits of the database, is shown in order to derive a scenario that can be simulated. As a result, the constellations of the five most frequent vehicle-to-vehicle accident scenarios according to the Crash Investigation Sampling System database are presented. In particular, other institutions should follow National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's example and make data freely available for accident research.

The relevance of scientific investigations, whether simulative or empirical, is strongly related to the environment used and the scenarios associated with it. Within the field of cooperative intelligent transport systems, use-cases are defined to describe the benefits of applications. This has already been conducted in the available safety-relevant Day 1 applications longitudinal and intersection collision risk warning through the respective technical specifications. However, the relevance of traffic scenarios is always a function of accident severity and frequency of a retrospective consideration of accident databases. In this study, vehicle-to-vehicle scenarios with high frequency and/or severe personal injuries are therefore determined with the help of the CISS database and linked to the use-cases of the safety-relevant Day 1 applications. The relevance of the scenarios thus results on the one hand from the classical parameters of retrospective accident analysis and on the other hand from the coverage by the named vehicle-to-x applications. As a result, accident scenarios with oncoming vehicles are the most relevant scenarios for investigations with cooperative intelligent transport systems. In addition, high coverage of the most critical scenarios within the use-cases of longitudinal and intersection collision risk warning is already apparent.