According to the statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO), every year more than 1.35 million people across the world die in road traffic accidents, and up to 50 million are injured. In Germany, over 3,000 people lose their lives as a result of road-traffic accidents. The risk is high particularly for unprotected road users - pedestrians and cyclists.

 Long-term road-safety research and road-safety work have always been indispensable in ensuring safe mobility on our streets and protecting people from injury. For almost 50 years now, AZT has been supporting this development via its own studies, committee work and safety campaigns. In this conjunction, the focus is, at all times, on the interaction in the human-vehicle-environment system, and safety is understood as the outcome resulting from safe people, safe vehicles and a safe environment.

 To this end, accident research at AZT analyzes, in detail, vehicle damage using representative random checks from insured claims by addressing manifold questions. For example, this allows information to be gleaned on the course of events leading to an accident or the severity of injuries, and research may be conducted with regard to the frequencies of certain types of accidents or prevention potential. The investigations range from minor P&C damage to accidents resulting in extremely severe bodily injuries involving cars, trucks, motorcycles or other classes of vehicle. With the aid of collision tests, analytical case studies on accidents, survey studies and statistical evaluations, the safety research conducted at AZT sheds light on biomechanical problems, the interaction between humans and machines as well as on the conduct of road users. The focus here lies on groups who are especially at risk, such as senior citizens and young drivers, and on the risk behavior displayed by car drivers as in the case of distractions for example.

Topics are, amongst others: 
 

• accidents involving trucks and goods vehicles
• large losses involving cars
• accidents involving agricultural vehicles
   

Die Sicherheitsforschung im AZT beleuchtet in Aufprallversuchen, unfallanalytischen Fallarbeiten, Befragungsstudien und statistischen Auswertungen Probleme der Biomechanik, der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion und des Verhaltens der Verkehrsteilnehmer. Im Fokus stehen hier besonders gefährdete Gruppen wie Senioren oder junge Fahrer und das Risikoverhalten der Autofahrer wie etwa die Ablenkung.

Topics are, amongst others:  
 

• pedestrian safety
• safety of cyclists and pedelec users
• young drivers
• bicycle helmet campaign (Video: Willi Weitzel hat's geschnallt - Fahrradfahren: Immer mit Helm!)
• senior citizens
• proper child safety in cars (Video: Willi Weitzel hat's geschnallt - Kindersitze)
• distractions while driving
• the blind spot with trucks (Video: Schon gewusst? - Der tote Winkel)

The Allianz Center for Technology supports the accident analysis, the technical non-sales staff and the mobile claims service of Allianz with accident-analysis issues with regard to occupant safety, plausibility and compatibility, as well as in respect of especially complex loss events. These loss events are reconstructed and simulated or even "retraced" in experiments using state-of-the-art software.

 Moreover, studies on current issues in accident analysis, accident reconstruction and occupant safety are published on a regular basis. The insights gained from these studies are then passed on both internally and externally during workshops, training seminars for experts, congresses and conferences.