Interior Minister Herbert Reul today opened a new chapter in the traffic accident prevention work of the North Rhine-Westphalian police. "With the use of virtual reality glasses, we are taking the prevention work for road traffic accidents with serious and very serious consequences to a new level," said the Minister on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, in Düsseldorf.
Traffic accident prevention is an important component of the police's road safety work. The primary objectives are to reduce traffic accidents and raise awareness of the dangers of road traffic. In line with the principle of lifelong learning, road accident prevention is aimed at all age and target groups, primarily at particularly vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedelec riders. For some time now, the North Rhine-Westphalian police have been focusing not only on reminders and warnings, but also on making the dangers of road traffic "tangible". Technical aids such as belt slides (a device designed to demonstrate the forces acting on a car driver in a head-on collision and the necessity of wearing a seatbelt) or the so-called "Torkelbrille" (staggering glasses) to show physical impairment after consuming drugs or alcohol have been part of the police repertoire for years. "Now we want to try something new. Something modern. Something that literally immerses the road user virtually in a situation," said Interior Minister Herbert Reul today at the presentation of the "VR glasses" in the state capital. "These glasses symbolize the future of the North Rhine-Westphalia police - progressive and digital," said Reul.
In a first 360-degree film, which the North Rhine-Westphalia police created especially for the pilot project, the user of the VR glasses is first virtually placed on a bicycle. During the ride, the test subject experiences in an impressively realistic way how he is overlooked and hit by a turning truck driver. In the second shot, the perspective changes and the processes are viewed from the professional driver's perspective. This view from the driver's cab in particular should be unfamiliar to most cyclists and heighten their awareness of the "blind spot" and its dangers. It also promotes mutual understanding between different road users.
"Alternative forms of transportation, such as cycling or the use of e-bikes and pedelecs, are very much in vogue and will be an even greater focus of our road accident prevention efforts in the future. It is therefore good and right to start with this topic in our VR glasses project," affirms Minister Reul. "Cyclists have neither a crumple zone nor an airbag. We can demonstrate this very vividly with our new technical possibilities".
The following ten district police authorities will initially take part in the "Virtual reality glasses pilot project for traffic accident prevention in NRW", which is expected to run until December 31, 2021.
- Aachen
- Dortmund
- Duisburg
- Düsseldorf
- Höxter
- Cologne
- Münster
- Paderborn
- Rhein-Kreis-Neuss
- Unna
The glasses will be delivered on May 3, 2021. Future 360-degree films will focus on the topics of "The road traffic area from a child's perspective" and "Distraction in road traffic".