The provision of protection for vulnerable road users (pedestrians and pedal cyclists) is not a new concept for vehicle design. Directives 2003/102/EC [1] and 2005/66/EC [2] assess the “structural aggressivity” of passenger cars and front protection systems (“bullbars”) with respect to the protection of pedestrians. Adopting these directives for assessing heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) would be straightforward. However, assessing the “structural aggressivity” only, will fail to address a relatively large number of fatalities, particularly those that occur at low-speeds.

This manuscript describes the development of the test procedures and assessment criteria for the Heavy Vehicle Aggressivity Index (HVAI). The procedure and criteria are derived based on the study of real world accidents. The proposed procedure integrates numerical simulation and physical testing methods.

The HVAI aims to reduce the number or severity of vulnerable road user (pedestrian and pedal cyclist) casualties from accidents involving HGVs by providing guidance to manufacturers/designers of such vehicles.

The HVAI consists of three parts, assessing the field of view of the driver (active HVAI), the direct contact between the casualty and the vehicle structure (structural HVAI) and the risk of the casualty being over run by the HGV (run-over HVAI). Each of these sub-indexes returns a value between 0 and 10. The three parts ensure that a wide range of accident scenarios are addressed.