Spökförare – Ghost Drivers / Wrong Way Driving
In the project GRID - Ghost dRIver Detection, researchers at Luleå University of Technology will investigate whether technology can detect and prevent serious accidents with motorists driving against traffic in the wrong lane.
The phenomenon of 'ghost drivers' (or wrong way driving) is the name given to vehicles which, for various reasons, end up in the wrong lane, putting themselves and others at risk. Getting into the wrong lane can be caused by many things such as illness, drugs and alcohol, poor visibility or misinterpretation of signs or the layout of a road junction. Not everyone is aware that they are driving in the wrong direction. This is particularly dangerous on roads with separated lanes, such as highways and roads with guardrails. In the project GRID, Ghost dRIver Detection, the research group in Traffic Engineering at Luleå University of Technology will study and evaluate equipment that can warn and detect this type of traffic hazard.
There is a large number of unknowns regarding how common "ghost drivers" are in Sweden. There are several reasons for this. The concept of ghost drivers is not fully anchored in our Swedish language and therefore this type of accident can be difficult to sort out among other traffic accidents. The databases that contain traffic accidents do not always provide clear answers to the causes and, above all, there are no incidents that did not lead to a real accident. In the research project, a site has been logged to improve knowledge of how common the phenomenon is and to evaluate how well road sensors can detect vehicles in the wrong direction and warn the wrong driver.
The project was funded by the Swedish Transport Administration and was completed in the fall of 2015.
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