Safety related attributes of registered vehicles and of vehicles that crash in South Australia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to characterise and compare a registered fleet and a crashed vehicle fleet with respect to vehicle attributes related to safety. Two samples of vehicles were examined: a random sample of 2000 passenger vehicles registered in South Australia and all passenger vehicles involved in serious casualty crashes in South Australia in 2008-2009. Vehicles were linked with sales and specification data. The resulting data sets were disaggregated according to the year in which the vehicles were sold. The installation rates of various technologies were estimated in each year-cohort of vehicles. In general, the availability of technology is similar among crashed vehicles and registered vehicles for a given year of sale, although ESC equipped vehicles are under-represented in crashes. However, given that crashed vehicles are older than in the general registered fleet, availability of safety equipment in crashed vehicles is less than average. Average ANCAP ratings are improving, but not in the area of pedestrian protection. The full introduction of a safety technology into new vehicles has generally taken between 10 and 20 years. ESC was present in 50% of the registered vehicle sample bought new in 2008 and 2009, but was in only 13% of the fleet overall.