STUDY ON THE RELATION BETWEEN LOW BEAM HEADLAMP DETECTION DISTANCE AND NIGHTTIME TRAFFIC SAFETY

Abstract

Car headlamps are the most important device that secures safety for drivers and pedestrians during nighttime driving, and the performance of car headlamps is improving along with the development of technology. To analyze detection distance and reaction time by comparing features according to headlamp type, this study uses a computer simulation on 100 dipped beam headlamps that were manufactured in Korea or imported for the past 10 years. The results showed a relationship between performance improvement and car accidents. Headlamps were categorized by year of manufacture (past 10 years), light source (halogen, HID, LED), and form (reflection type, projection type) for analysis. Over the past 10 years, detection distance has increased by 6.6 m and reaction time has increased by 0.34 s; the reaction times' of the High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamp and the Light Emitting Diode (LED) were 0.81 s and 0.23 s longer than that of halogen lights, respectively. Also, the decreased fatality rate according to the increase of reaction time of headlamps is r = -0.739 (p=0.015), which shows that the increase of headlamp performance has had a positive effect on the decrease of road fatalities.