Arts & Social Sciences
Te Kura Kete Aronui

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  Driver Behaviour

Evaluating a Sudden Stop Warning System
2007

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of  a Sudden Stop Warning System (SSWS) on the response time of the following driver.

The warning system (‘BrakeAlert’ has been manufactured by DataBrake International Ltd and is an electronic safety device that monitors the deceleration of  the vehicle to which it is fitted. It is activated when a certain deceleration thresholds are met (braking hard) – causing the hazard warning lights to flash indicating a hazard for the following driver.

A video-based barking simulation dual task was used during which participants had to respond to braking maneuvers of the lead car with and without the SSWS activated.

The results showed that overall the participants responded 0.34 faster to the lead vehicle braking when the SSWS was activated. The warning system was particularly effective when the ‘response window’ was larger than 2 Seconds and did not require an immediate and abrupt braking response from the participants to avoid a rear-end crash in real driving.