RASSI holds fourth annual consortium meet in Pune

JP Research India organised RASSI’s (Road Accident Sampling System India) fourth annual consortium meet in Pune on March 21, where it was joined by its members Bosch, Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, Daimler and JP Research, Inc.

Besides reviewing RASSI activities of the past year (FY 2013-14), which included discussions on driver patterns, causes behind the large number of road accidents in India, statistics from the current RASSI database and counter measures as suggested by the officials for select accident cases, the consortium meet focussed on laying down the roadmap for FY 2014-15.

Amongst the top priorities going forward, JP Research officials told Autocar Professional that they plan to add new review data and statistics from at least 450 fresh accident cases during the upcoming financial year, to the existing database of RASSI. The company plans to add fresh findings from nearly 200, 100-150 and 50-100 accident cases from Coimbatore, Pune and Ahmedabad respectively. JP Research India added Ahmedabad as its third centre in February earlier this year. RASSI’s existing database consists of findings from over 900 India-specific accident cases.

The company also plans to follow up with the government during the new fiscal as it has already submitted a report to NATRiP (National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project) and is expecting to work in tandem with the organisation. Once government support is received, JP Research plans to add newer territories to its existing locations and expand its crash investigation activities in India.

According to company officials, RASSI is a global name after its participation in events such as the international IRCOBI conference on the biomechanics of injury (September 2013, Gothenburg, Sweden), global NCAP conference (January 2014, Delhi, India) and others.

RASSI, a brainchild of 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.