Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

New Priorities of Japan-Future Measures for Vehicle Safety for a Society with No Traffic Accidents-

154th Session of WP.29June 2011

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Informal document No. WP.29-154-10(154th WP.29, 21-24 June 2011, Agenda item 19)

CONTENTS

1. CURRENT STATUS2. TARGET3. CHANGING OF THE ENVIRONMENT

SURROUNDING MOTOR VEHICLES4. TASKS AHEAD(1)Respond to the Declining Birthrate and Aging

Population(2)Prevent Involvements and Reduce Damage of

Pedestrians and Cyclists(3)Respond to Needs for New Mobility(4)Prevent Serious Accidents Involving Large-Sized

Vehicles5. OTHERS6. SETTING A NUMERICAL TARGET 2

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000Number of deaths

Number of deaths within 30 days

Number of accidents (in ten thousand）

Number of injuries (in ten thousands)

Number of vehicles in use (in millions)

1. CURRENT STATUSN

umbe

r of d

eath

s N

umbe

r of d

eath

s w

ithin

30

days

Num

ber o

f acc

iden

ts (i

n te

n th

ousa

nds)

Num

ber o

f inj

urie

s (in

ten

thou

sand

s)N

umbe

r of v

ehic

les

in u

se (i

n m

illio

ns)

Evolution of traffic accidents

Number of deaths4,863

Number of injuries896,208

Number of deathswithin 30 days5,745

3

2 .4 2 .83 .8 3 .9 3 .9

4 .4 4 .5 4 .55 .1 5 .2 5 .3 5 .4 5 .5

5 .96 .7 6 .8 7 .1 7 .3 7 .6 7 .9 8 .2 8 .4 8 .6 8 .9 8 .9

9 .7

1111 .612 12

12 .9

0 .0

2 .0

4 .0

6 .0

8 .0

1 0 .0

1 2 .0

1 4 .0

Japan(2018)

Japan(2015)

U.K.

Sweden

Netherlands

Norway

Japan

Switzerland

Germany

Finland

Iceland

Ireland

Denmark

Spain

Australia

France

Itary

Canada(2008)

Austria

Portugal

Hungary

Slovenia

CaechRepublic

Belgium(2008)

NewZealand

Luxembourg

U.S.A.

SlovakRepublic(2007)

Poland

SouthKorea

Greece

2.TARGET

“We’ll reduce the number of deaths in traffic accidents to below 2,500 by 2018 and make Japan a country of highest traffic safety in the world. “(January 2010, the Minister of State for Special Mission)

“We’ll reduce the number of deaths within 24 hours to below 3 000 by2015 aiming at eventually building a society with no traffic accidents. “(March 2011, Ninth Fundamental Traffic Safety Program)

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Traffic accident fatalities for 100,000 of population

3.CHANGING OF THE ENVIRONMENT SURROUNDING MOTOR VEHICLESWith the fastest aging population in the world and rapid spread of hybrid and electric vehicles, the environment surrounding thetraffic community and motor vehicles is drastically changing.

5

Total population (In ten thousands)Rate of agingRate of Age 75 or older

Num

ber o

f tot

al p

opul

atio

n (In

ten

thou

sand

s)

Rat

e of

agi

ng /

age

75 o

r old

er

Evolution of declining birthrate and aging population and future estimate

3.CHANGING OF THE ENVIRONMENT SURROUNDING MOTOR VEHICLES

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Electric vehicle

Num

ber o

f veh

icle

s in

use

Num

ber o

f veh

icle

s in

use

6

4.TASKS AHEAD

(1) Respond to the Declining Birthrate and Aging Population

Inde

x

Evolution of number of license holders according to age by sex (Index)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Male Age 24 or youngerFemale Age24 or youngerMale Age 24 to 64Female Age 24 to 64Male Age 65 or olderFemale Age 65 or older

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0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000Age 65  or  older Age 60  to  64 Age  50  to  59Age 40  to  49 Age 30  to  39 Age  25  to  29Age 16  to  24

4.TASKS AHEAD

Evolution of the number of traffic accidents by age group (primary party, including moped drivers)

Num

ber o

f acc

iden

t

(1) Respond to the Declining Birthrate and Aging Population

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4.TASKS AHEAD

Develop and spread passenger protection technologies responsive to the needs of the elderly, etc.

Develop and spread driver assistance systems responsive to the needs of elderly drivers.

With the aging of the population, the number of elderly drivers and the number of traffic accidents caused by this age group has been increasing.

(1) Respond to the Declining Birthrate and Aging Population

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Enhance activities among automobile users to raise their awareness of the necessity and importance of child restraint systems and let the secure and proper use of child restraint systems well known.

4.TASKS AHEAD

Child restraint systems are used by 60% of vehicles, but 60% of those are used incorrectly.

Child restraint systems( for baby / for infant) installation

(%)

(1) Respond to the Declining Birthrate and Aging Population

10

63.3 63.8 63.5

36.7 36.2 36.5

0

20

40

60

80

100

Baby Infant Baby and infant

proper use

miss use

4.TASKS AHEAD

Pedestrians accounts for the majority of deaths. With cyclists, they represent the half of all deaths

(2) Prevent Involvements and Reduce Damage of Pedestrians and Cyclists

Deaths and injuries by situation (2010)

64.5 

28.2 

32.9 

4.9 

13.0 

10.5 

7.0 

17.3 

7.4 

16.5 

22.0 

13.5 

7.0 

19.4 

35.2 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Slight injuries

Serious injuries

Death

Riding cars

Riding motorcyclesRiding mopeds

Riding bicycles

Walking

Others

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4.TASKS AHEAD

The elderly age 65 or older and children of age 15 or younger find more deaths and injuries while walking or cycling than other age groups.

(2) Prevent Involvements and Reduce Damage of Pedestrians and Cyclists

Ratio of deaths according to state and age

0% 50% 100%

Age 15 or younger

Age 16 to 64

Age 65 or olderRiding cars

Riding motorcyclesRiding mopeds

Riding bicycles

Walking

Others

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0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%

Deaths

Serious injuries

Slight injuries

Deaths

Serious injuries

Slight injuries

Mortality rate

4.TASKS AHEAD

Composition rate in pedestrian-vehicle accident according to dangerous acknowledgment speed (2008)

In pedestrian-vehicle accidents, the rate of death significantly increases after the hazard recognition speed exceeds 30 km/h.

(2) Prevent Involvements and Reduce Damage of Pedestrians and Cyclists

Composition rate

Cumulative composition rate

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4.TASKS AHEAD

Enhance pedestrian protection regulations for motor vehiclesStudy the development and promotion of preventive safety technologies (Advanced emergency braking system(AEBS), intelligent speedadaptation (ISA), etc.) to prevent accidents and sufficiently reduce collision speed.

(2) Prevent Involvements and Reduce Damage of Pedestrians and Cyclists

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4.TASKS AHEAD

With increasing environmental awareness, hybrid and electric vehicles are rapidly spreading.

Lithium ion storage battery for automobile

Workshop concerning quietness of hybrid vehicles

(3) Respond to Needs for New Mobility

We need to establish technical regulations on lithium-ion batteries and quietness of these vehicles while running.

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4.TASKS AHEAD

There is increasing interest in ultra-micro mobility as response to various needs such as increasing environmental awareness and mobility for the elderly.

(3) Respond to Needs for New Mobility

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Two-seater ultra-micro mobilities cannot be provided with the same level of collision safety as other vehicles. If they run in the same manner as other vehicles in the general traffic environment and meet accidents, passengers may get severely damaged.

4.TASKS AHEAD

(3) Respond to Needs for New Mobility

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However, we think that these ultra-micro mobilities offer features, advantages, and use of their own, just as motorcycles and currently used micro cars (of 50 cc or less) do. We find it appropriate to establish safety standards suited to the size and use of these vehicles; specifically, to study and develop standards on safety and driving performance, such as stability, based on the existing standards for micro cars.Based on the above, we need to check the impact of their running public roads by demonstration experiments and study desirable fields of use, desired performance, etc.

4.TASKS AHEAD

(3) Respond to Needs for New Mobility

As for mobility assistance robots, firstly we need to check its acceptance by traffic community. We will keep studying this question based on the results of the demonstration experiments to be conducted in experimental zones starting 2011.

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2.6%

0.9%0.5%

0.8%

1.5%

1.0%

0.0%

0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

3.0%

4.TASKS AHEAD

High rate of death, heavy damage once caused

Accidents involving large-sized vehicles are not many, but, once caused, they entail heavy damage.

Death rates by type of vehicle involved (Primary party) in 2010

(4)Prevent Serious Accidents Involving Large-Sized Vehicles

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4.TASKS AHEAD

(4)Prevent Serious Accidents Involving Large-Sized Vehicles

Enhance support for or make mandatory the introduction of preventive safety technologies (AEBS, wobble-driving warning system, lane departure warning system (LDWS), etc.) into commercial vehicles.As to diseases that might suddenly strike and disable the driver from keeping driving, study technologies that bring the vehicles to a stop safely even if the driver has been attacked by such a disease, especially for vehicles carrying many passengers such as buses, and heavy-duty trucks and cranes, etc. 20

5. OTHERS

To develop and spread preventive safety technologies and implement measures for the elderly, it is essential to study traffic accidents more in detail and clarify mechanisms of injury upon accident, driving and walking behaviors of the elderly, etc.

(1) Enhance Accident Studies

Develop a system of collection and analysis of data that enables us to make the best use of drive recorders and event data recorders (EDR) providing detailed information on accident.In coordination with medical institutions, collect data on injury in accidents and emergency medical care.Share data among parties concerned and develop detailed vehicle safety measures based on the results of analysis of such data.

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5. OTHERS

Preventive safety technologies are effective in reducing damage from traffic accidents, but drivers may depend too much on these technologies and fail to check safety themselves or go beyond the limits of their ability while driving.

(2)Study How a Driver Assistance System Should be

Hold comprehensive discussion and sort out opinions on the level of technical regulations, findings on drivers’ situations, design of driver assistance systems, etc., including legal issues.

Make aggressive efforts to let the functions and use of preventive safety technologies well known to automobile users.

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6. SETTING A NUMERICAL TARGET

Based on the governmental target for 2018, we have set a target of reducing the number of victims by about one third measures.

Reduce the number of traffic deaths (within 30 days) by 1,000 by 2020(from the 2010 level)

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Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Thank you for your attention

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