JP Research looks to improve road safety in India

While RASSI will investigate new road accidents in-depth, JP Research aims to work with government organisations and OEMs to lay down a safety roadmap. Amit Panday reports.

JP Research India organised RASSI’s (Road Accident Sampling System India) fourth annual consortium meet in Pune on March 21, which was joined by its members Bosch, Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, Daimler and JP Research, Inc. Besides reviewing RASSI activities in FY 2013-14, which included discussions on the driver patterns, causes behind road accidents in India, statistics from the current RASSI database and counter measures as suggested by officials for select accident cases, the consortium meet focused on laying down the roadmap for FY 2014-15.
Among the top priorities going forward, JP Research officials told Autocar Professional that it plans to add new review data and statistics from at least 450 fresh accident cases during the upcoming fiscal year to RASSI’s existing database. The company plans to add fresh findings from nearly 200, 100-150 and 50-100 accident cases from Coimbatore, Pune and Ahmedabad respectively. RASSI’s existing database consists of findings from over 900 India-specific accident cases.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT IS KEY
The company also plans to follow up with the government as it has already submitted a report to NATRiP (National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project) and expects to work in tandem with the organisation. On getting government support, JP Research plans to add newer territories to its existing locations and expand its crash investigation activities in India.
RASSI's connect with road safety has grown and it has participated in the IRCOBI conference on the biomechanics of injury (September 2013, Gothenburg, Sweden), global NCAP conference (January 2014, Delhi) among others.
RASSI, set up by JP Research India, has been conducting studies over last four years by recording real-time data from road accidents occurring on the Indian roads. The sampling system contains over 700 variables to evaluate the causes behind each accident and injury. The system has recently started using complex analysis softwares such as PC Crash and PC Rect to recreate the accident visuals, also known as accident reconstruction in technical lingo. These visuals are recreated via first-hand evidence collected from the accident site (measurements, diagrams and other readings) to read the actual causes behind the event. This study is sponsored by automotive majors such as Daimler AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Nissan Motor Company, Renault SAS, Hyundai Motor Company and JP Research, Inc.
JP Research India, which has a small team of 20-24 engineers, is working towards its goal of understanding road accidents on a national level to promote safety parameters to OEMs and government bodies.
To collect primary data from various accident sites, the company depends on police, ambulance and the towing services. “However, there are times when police gets to know about the road accident as late as 24 hours. Hence, our teams patrol the roads to find out about the fresh accident cases,” added an official.

DIRE NEED FOR IMPROVING SAFETY
While in developed nations such as the US, government authorities collect the primary data (on-road accidents), which is later analysed by agencies such as JP Research for the automotive industry, in India, the company collects the primary road accident data mainly due to the absence of a proper accident management program.
All in all, this is a worthy cause and in fact, other bodies like the New Delhi-based SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, are also doing yeomen work in this sector. And that effort couldn't have come sooner. Road accidents in India simply have to be reduced — and scores of lives saved.

INTERVIEW WITH JEYA PADMANABAN, PRESIDENT, JP RESEARCH, INC

What does JP Research do in India?
We do in-depth investigation of road accidents in terms of collecting the crash data and analyse the same. We do crash analysis, on-the-spot scene examination, vehicle examination, scientific research to correlate the injuries and the causes of accidents, the environmental and vehicle factors. So our findings (if implemented) can, kind of, mitigate road accidents in India.

How has the journey been so far?
I have worked in the US as an automotive safety research and data analyst for around 20 years. We started around 2006, when we had only 3-4 people working together.
We started by meeting OEMs, component manufacturers, did a lot of workshops. In 2008, we began to do our pilot study to figure out if we could do this in India. By 2010, we started growing and opened a branch in Coimbatore. Around that time, we also established our consortium and this is our fourth annual consortium meeting. We have Bosch, Daimler, Nissan, Renault, Hyundai and JP Research (USA) as a part of this consortium. I am hoping that people would understand the gravity of the number of casualties that are happening on Indian roads and hence the relevance of crash analysis. I hope more OEMs join the consortium with time.

What is the agenda behind holding such a meeting?
The annual consortium meeting is for everybody to get together and review our findings through the data collection and analysis and how we can improve our quality of data collection process. The mission of this consortium is to set up a database (called RASSI — road accident sampling system India, it also means good luck in Tamil). In US and Europe, they have been collecting this kind of crash-related data for over 40 years for setting NCAP/Euro NCAP standards, in India this is at a nascent stage. We provide them with the findings of our investigations, injury codings, accident reconstruction and other factors.
All these scientific disciplines are a part of the accident data collection system in the western world. The data we are collecting here is home-grown that is suitable for the Indian road conditions. We have created a huge computerised database that has over 700 variables that we collect when we go to an accident scene.
The government can use this data for setting up regulations, implementing/developing vehicle safety standards and to improve road infrastructure.

What is JP Research India's manpower right now?
JP Research India has over 20 engineers currently who work out of three branches — Coimbatore, Pune and Ahmedabad (recently opened). We are also bringing internationally known consultants to work for us from time to time.

What are you doing to attract more OEMs to join this consortium?
We have been meeting with all the top level executives at various companies, conducting workshops (with the government agencies as well) and educating them with the benefits of this kind of data. So we are making the Indian OEMs and other agencies aware of what we are doing.

You have spoken with NATRiP officials. What is their response?
They say that they want us to help them set up a team and train them about the know-how of collecting adequate crash data. Nothing has happened yet; the talks are still at a very early stage.

How do you think vehicle manufacturers would benefit by the crash analysis data?
When we analyse a road accident, we redraw the entire incident to understand why it happened. We also come up with counter measures. For example, through our analysis, we can tell if an ill-fated passenger car had an ESC (electronic stability control) or an ABS (anti-lock braking system) or airbags, how that could have helped in at least reducing the injuries or fatalities in an accident of a particular nature. That’s one of the biggest benefits an OEM gets being a part of this consortium. They get to use our data at an early state, so that they can use the same in the form of introducing some safety feature(s) in their cars in India.
Essentially, they can compare the data between various countries to understand what types of accidents dominate our roads and hence what types of features are more relevant for cars in India.

Which is the best and most cooperative location your team has worked out of so far in India?
Ahmedabad as that city is more progressive with its approach to road safety. We got an invitation to open our branch there. Ahmedabad has a road safety committee, which includes the highway authorities, World Bank officials and even the police officials. They were interested in our model as we are not charging the government anything. Our footprint there will help us add new statistics to our existing database. Tamil Nadu, however, was the first state to give an approval to us to set up our first branch.

Photographs of road accidents by Subhash Simhudu