SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- REDUCING FIREFIGHTER VEHCILE CRASHES: SIMULATION AND INTERVENTION - DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY PROTOCOL
- Notice Date
- 6/4/2014
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 611310
— Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Acquisition and Assistance Field Branch (Morgantown), 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26505
- ZIP Code
- 26505
- Solicitation Number
- 000HCCJC-2014-72876
- Archive Date
- 7/19/2014
- Point of Contact
- Rebecca S Mullenax, Phone: 304-285-5880, Denise Rains, Phone: 509-354-8111
- E-Mail Address
-
rmullenax@cdc.gov, dgr8@cdc.gov
(rmullenax@cdc.gov, dgr8@cdc.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Title: Reducing Firefighter Vehicle Crashes: Simulation and Intervention - Development of a Comprehensive Study Protocol The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Division of Safety Research (DSR), Protective Technology Branch (PTB) intends to award a sole source firm fixed price purchase order to West Virginia University Research Corporation, 886 Chestnut Ridge Road, Morgantown, WV 26505 for development of a comprehensive study protocol for reducing firefighter vehicle crashes: simulation and intervention. Statement of Work Reducing Firefighter Vehicle Crashes: Simulation and Intervention - Development of a Comprehensive Study Protocol The task is to develop a comprehensive study protocol, including a series of experiments, to evaluate the effects of a curve over-speed warning (COSW) system characteristics (i.e., warning signal type, signal timing, signal modality and delivery location), road and curve characteristics on rural two-lane roads (i.e., curve radius, curve radius change, curve visibility, curve signaling, road slope, road lateral gradient, length of the preceding straight road section), fire truck type (pumper, tanker) and fire-truck driver experience (novice, experienced) on fire-truck-driver's response and performance, driver's COSW system acceptability, and thus on fire-truck curve driving safety. The protocol will be used for lab-based experiments with high-definition motion-base driving simulator to produce science-based guidelines for adapting COSW technologies to the specific requirements of fire trucks and fire-emergency driving tasks with the ultimate goal to reduce fire truck overturn crashes. Background NFPA estimates that there were approximately 1,103,300 firefighters in the U.S. in 2010. Of these, 335,150 (30%) were career firefighters and 768,150 (70%) were volunteer firefighters (Karter and Stein 2011). Injuries resulting from response and roadway incidents are the second leading cause of all fire fighter fatalities (second only to cardiac arrest). Of a total of 72 on-duty firefighter deaths in 2010, 11 firefighters died in vehicle crashes (Fahy, LeBlanc, and Molis 2011). In addition, there were an estimated 14,200 collisions involving fire department emergency vehicles in 2010 while departments were responding to or returning from incidents, which resulted in 775 firefighter injuries, not counting civilian and firefighter injuries during the use of personal vehicles (common among volunteer fire fighters) (Karter and Molis, 2011). Analysis of injury statistics (2000-2009) reveal that firefighters are exposed to a greater risk of injury or fatality if they are in a rollover crash compared to a non-rollover crash - more than 60% of all fatal fire-truck crashes involve a roll-over (Donoughe et al 2012). Estimates of the number of fire automotive apparatus in the United States for the 2008-2010 period indicate that there were 66,800 pumpers, 6,800 aerial apparatuses, and 72,800 other suppression vehicles (which includes light pumpers, hose carriers, brush vehicles, and tankers) (Karter and Stein 2011). While tankers represent only 3 percent of all fire apparatuses in the United States, they accounted for 21.9% of all fire vehicles involved in a fatal crash (FEMA 2003). Excessive speed has been identified as one of the major contributing factors for fire apparatus crashes and overturns (FEMA 2003, IAFF 2010). The problems associated with excessive speed manifest themselves in a number of ways: the vehicle is unable to negotiate a curve in the road; the vehicle is unable to stop before hitting another vehicle or object; the vehicle is unable to stop before entering an intersection or railroad crossing; a dangerous weight shift occurs when the vehicle is suddenly slowed, causing it to skid or overturn; control of the vehicle is lost after hitting a pothole, speed bump, or similar irregularity in the driving surface; control of the vehicle is lost as a result of swaying outside the lane of travel and striking a median or curb, or the tires on one side of the vehicle (usually the right side) leave the road surface; or tire traction is lost on wet, icy, snowy, or unpaved road surfaces. Fire departments have made significant commitments to develop and enforce policies that establish maximum speed criteria for all types of apparatus, including tankers. Adapting and using advanced technologies to assist the driver in controlling the speed of a fire apparatus in emergency response situations is a promising novel approach to reduce the risk of fire engine crashes and overturns. COSW is an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), featuring a predictive/preemptive warning system "Electronic Horizon," which uses upcoming road condition information to actively assist drivers in avoiding the risk of a motor vehicle crash due to overturn in a road curve. Other systems that can supplement the COSW applications (and can be considered for evaluation) include lane-control warnings systems and sensor-based warning systems for overturns, however they have some limitations as applied to emergency driving situations. The existing studies on COSW have predominantly addressed the issues of system development, application, and evaluation as they apply to commercial vehicles (heavy trucks) and typical driving scenarios (non-emergency driving conditions), and have demonstrated the value in the use of these systems (Jimenez 2012). There is limited information on the applicability and performance of such systems for emergency vehicles and specifically on driver performance, acceptability, and safety outcomes. Emergency vehicle drivers are at increased risk of crash-related incidents due to atypical driving patterns and unfamiliar road conditions which they frequently encounter. A combination of radios blaring, sirens wailing, and reaching a destination that is frequently unknown creates additional challenges and often unpredictable stress to emergency vehicle drivers. Literature has shown the validity and maturity of driving simulation for speed-related safety research involving road-based speeding countermeasures (Godley et al 2002). Evaluating COSW for fire apparatus in VR simulation environments will result in valuable information to enhance firefighter and public safety. NIOSH has a priority goal to evaluate safety technologies and develop science-based guidelines for reducing fatalities related to high-speed response and unsafe driving among fire service personnel. Task components The contractor is to develop a comprehensive lab-based study protocol, including a series of experiments using a high-definition motion-base driving simulator, to study the effects of curve over-speed warning system characteristics in different two-lane rural-road curve scenarios on fire-truck driver safety performance and system acceptance during normal and emergency response driving tasks. The contract includes the following components: 1. The contractor is to develop a comprehensive study plan, which contains a series of experiments to address the interaction effects of COSW system characteristics, rural-road curve parameters, and fire truck type, on fire-truck driver response, safety performance, and system acceptance. The independent variables may include but are not limited to: a) system warning: signal type (continuous, looming), signal timing (early, optimal, late), signal modality (visual, auditory, tactile, multimodal) and signal delivery location (visual: head-down, head-up display; auditory: sound, speech; tactile: steering, pedal, seat); b) road and curve characteristics: curve radius (small, medium, large), curve radius change (constant and decreasing), curve visibility (visible and occluded), curve signaling (absent and present), road slope (level and downgrade), road lateral gradient, i.e., super-elevation (zero, positive, negative), road preceding straight section length (short, medium, and long); c) fire-truck type (pumper and tanker). The dependent variables may include but are not limited to the following categories: driver's response to warning signals (controls: braking, gas-pedal, steering; psychophysiological: heart rate, skin conductance); driver's safety performance ("efficiency", i.e., time to reach destination; "compliance" i.e., speed profile in the curve, number of over-speeding events; "safety", i.e., hazard avoidance count, leaving the lane and virtual crashes); driver's system acceptance. 2. The study plan must include the most promising COSW warning signal types, modalities, and delivery methods, by addressing the specific requirements of occupational emergency response driving of fire trucks, taking into consideration the typical fire-truck cab design, including dashboard and instrumental panel displays, additional specialized equipment (i.e., radio, siren, emergency lights controls), the visual and auditory environment to which the driver is exposed, and the typical tasks and behaviors of fire-truck drivers during the emergency-response driving task, as well as the fire-truck driver performance requirements according to the existing best practices, guidelines, and regulations. 3. The study plan must include situations/scenarios in which the COSW system will be critical (needed and most effective), i.e., with conflicting driver expectations about the approaching curve, i.e., curve-related critical speed, and the vehicle curve-approaching speed. Some of the underlying tasks to accomplish this include: a) develop and implement accurate fire-truck dynamics models using TruckSim and Simulink software; b) calculate/estimate curve critical speed for each of the curve scenarios; c) develop test-map(s) and -routes to use as virtual driving environments; d) develop a balanced experimental design for testing the human participants that minimizes and averages out the learning and fatigue-related effects during testing. 4. The study plan will be implemented at the NIOSH Motor Vehicle Safety Lab using a high-definition motion-base driving simulator with a set of driving simulation environments representing rural roads with curves of different configurations and characteristics. The contractor must incorporate the concepts of "simulated driving" in "virtual environments" using a "driving simulator". The contractor must consider the possible side effects of using a driving simulator, and design the experiments in a way to reduce the risk of simulator sickness (determine the length of testing and resting periods). The study protocol must include procedures for pre- and post-testing the participants for motion sickness, and include procedures for recovery and criteria for release of the study participants. 5. The contractor is to complete a report (the study protocol) documenting the study plan and process using the format of typical grants and lab-based scientific study protocols in the area of human factors and ergonomics, which would contain instruction, objectives, hypotheses, methods, expected results, and human subjects research consent (a sample structure of the protocol and the consent form will be provided by NIOSH). 6. The task should be completed within 9 months from the effective date of the contract This contract action is for a product for which the government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) and 10 U.S.C 2304(c) (1). Interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement or submit proposals. The notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, all quotations/responses received within (15) days of the issuance of this notice will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Any quotation/response should be e-mailed to purchasing agent Rebecca Mullenax at rmullenax@cdc.gov by COB on June 19, 2014. FAR Reference: FAR 5.207 - Preparation and transmittal of synopses under (c) (15), (c
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