Abstract
The primary goal of this paper is to present a case study and several human factors methodologies useful for investigations of accidents occurring during low light, nighttime situations. Classical vehicular accident reconstruction approaches seldom consider the potential contribution of low visibility. However, visual acuity can be enormously impacted by low ambient illumination. It is therefore important to consider visibility to fully understand the perceptual and cognitive limitations of drivers. In order for the most likely cause of an accident to be identified, appropriate human factors techniques should be applied to facilitate the determination of how and why a nighttime collision occurred. With the help of a specific case study, this paper will discuss human visual limitations at night, techniques to measure headlamp luminance and illuminance, validated photographic approaches, and how to translate the results into a format that can subsequently be used as the bases for engineering and scientific animations and demonstrative exhibits.
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