Eye, head and torso motion during daytime driving in an urban setting

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Whiplash injuries resulting from automobile collisions are a significant health issue. Whiplash insurance claims alone constitute up to 80 % of all insurance claims in some parts of Canada. It is commonly reported that occupants have their head turned at the moment of an automobile impact. Previous research has shown a strong link between head rotation and the persistence of whiplash symptoms. It is then difficult to assess the risk of occupant injury as the degree to which the head was rotated is often unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of eye, head and torso rotation in everyday driving to provide standardized, and statistically rigorous information on the normal behaviour of drivers in an urban driving environment. During the course of this study, 10 subjects will drive a 5 km predetermined route through an urban area 4 times in total. Eye, head and torso movement will be recorded using in car eye tracking and advanced 3-d motion analysis instrumentation. The instrumentation required for this study will include separate commercially available systems custom mounted in subject vehicles, and integrated through a central data collection system developed specifically for this study. Collected data will be analyzed to correlate driver behaviour with driving situations. Understanding normal human behaviour and body motion during driving is complicated by many factors including situation dependent variables compounded by intra and inter subject variability. As a consequence, the direct measurement of normal behaviour offers the advantage of providing quantifiable, real world data.