Development of simulated scenarios for quadricycle safety

In Italy, quadricycles can be driven by the youngest category of drivers of 14 years of age. The increasing popularity together with the low-level of safety regulation of these vehicles compared to cars gives cause for concern. Simulators, considered as a training method, provide a realistic reproduction of driving environments so that they can be used to improve driving skills and risk awareness to novice and young drivers. Simulation trial can also be used to evaluate driving performance about safety. At first, the more appropriate simulated accident scenarios for training of young drivers were identified as those with the highest frequency in real world crashes. Since the ISTAT national crash data base includes a multitude of information, but no unique scenario code, it was necessary to use all the available data to classify the proper scenario associated with each crash. To this aim, the taxonomy theory was applied to create a comparable structure for the database. For training and evaluation tests, five accident scenarios were implemented in a simulation course that lasted approximately fifteen minutes. Ten participants driving a simulated quadricycle in a simple one screen simulator were used as a sample to test the working performance of the scenarios. Finally, Traffic Conflict Technique was applied to measure performance indicators derived from the data acquired during the simulation tests. The results confirmed data from the accident database about the location of accidents in rural intersections.