Measurement of the Driver Response Time in the Simulated and Real Emergency Driving Situations

Since the real reaction time of a driver involved in an accidentwill always be unknown to reconstruction experts, and becausethe driver's reaction time databases published in the respectiveliterature have become almost obscure and hard tocompare with the everyday practice of the accident reconstruction,expert decision was made at Transport Safety Laboratoryto engage in research of the driver's reaction time and in the reactiontime measurement techniques as well and to develop aPC-based simulator for measurements of the driver reactiontime. The structure of the Driver Reaction Timer simulator andits components are described as well as its measuring algorithm.The measurements of the driver's reaction time in thereal and simulated driving environment were performed, andthe results obtained are discussed. By comparing these results,the quality evaluation of the current stage of development of thesimulator is addressed and the necessary further developmentof the simulator defined.