Examination of accident prevention measures due to incorrect brake and accelerator pedal pression (third report) (Analysis of driver behavior when the brake and accelerator pedals are pressed incorrectly)
DOI: 10.1299/transjsme.24-00123
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates driver behavior following incorrect brake and accelerator pedal operations, a leading cause of traffic accidents. While previous research has focused on the causes of pedal misapplication, this paper addresses the subsequent phase: the driver’s ability to recognize the error and execute correct braking. Because such errors are rare in natural driving, the researchers developed a method to artificially induce pedal misoperation in a driving simulator by remotely shifting the pedal positions 100 mm to the left without the driver’s notice. This approach allows for the direct observation of corrective actions, which is critical for developing prevention measures beyond automated braking systems. The experiment involved 45 participants across three age groups (young, middle-aged, and elderly) who performed car-following tasks. After four dummy runs to establish pedal position familiarity, the pedals were shifted during the fifth run to induce misoperation. The researchers collected video and driving data, extracting seven features from the dummy runs, including maximum accelerator depression, reaction time, and cognitive/physical ability metrics derived from Trail Making Tests and a two-step test. They analyzed the relationship between these features and the time required to switch from the accelerator to the brake after misoperation. The results demonstrated that aging significantly slows the transition from accelerator misoperation to correct braking, with elderly drivers showing statistically significant delays in reaction time and increased travel distance. Additionally, elderly drivers were more likely to press the accelerator pedal multiple times after the initial error, likely due to a belief that the brake had failed rather than recognizing the misapplication. This behavior correlates with the higher incidence of multi-impact accidents among older drivers. In contrast, gender and driving frequency had little significant influence on reaction times or distances, though frequent drivers were more likely to press the accelerator three or more times. Principal component analysis revealed that driver characteristics can be categorized into an "ability axis" (cognitive and physical metrics) and a "personality and driving habit axis" (driving style metrics). Decision tree analysis identified that drivers who operate the accelerator gently and deliberately during normal driving are more likely to recover quickly from pedal misoperation. Conversely, drivers who react quickly to preceding vehicles but operate pedals aggressively were less likely to correct the error promptly. The study also found that drivers press the accelerator significantly faster when they mistakenly believe it is the brake, leading to panic and impaired judgment. These findings suggest that accident prevention strategies should focus on guiding drivers toward correct operations and enhancing their ability to recognize errors, particularly for elderly drivers. The results also help explain the "bathtub curve" of pedal error accidents, attributing high rates among the elderly to slow corrective responses and among novices to higher frequencies of initial misapplication.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | DOAJ | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-10 |
| archive | success | unpaywall | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-25 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-10 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | partial | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified_with_issues.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data