Abstract
Approximately for one in ten motor vehicle collisions, the cause of collision is due to the driver’s health problems. In some cases, the drivers subsequently die of the diseases. We evaluate the usefulness of Advanced Automatic Collision Notification system with real-world frontal collision cases. Among the forensic autopsies performed at Tochigi Prefecture through April 1998 to March 2014, 48 fatal drivers who had died of disease attack while driving were collected. In each case, driver’s back ground, cause of death, injury severity and information about the collision were surveyed. Most common cause of deaths was heart diseases （75.0％） and mean injury severity score of the drivers was 3.8. In 43 cases, subsequent collisions were occurred without taking avoidance maneuvers of drivers. Drivers in 5 cases could stop the vehicle after the disease attack. Among 43 collision cases, airbag was deployed in 3 cases. For the 37 cases in which airbag was not deployed or not equipped, mean time from collision to emergency call was 5.1 minutes, however, from collision to hospital arrival was 43.3 minutes. Because the airbag was not deployed in most of our series, the drivers may not be obtained the benefits of Advanced Automatic Collision Notification System. To save the drivers suffering disease attack while driving, development of further systems in which sudden changes of health problems of the drivers can be detected and immediately taking emergency notification is required.
