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Paper Title:
Safety benefits resulting
from vehicle design changes since the introduction of the ANCAP
crash test program
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Authors:
Delia Hendrie, Greg Lyle,
Jack Haley
Abstract:
The aim of this study
was to estimate the safety benefits of successive design and equipment
changes in cars entering the passenger vehicle fleet in Australia
since the introduction of the Australian New Car Assessment Program
(ANCAP) crash tests in 1992. The safety benefits were calculated
only for front seat occupants involved in frontal impact injury
crashes. The expected cost of injuries sustained in crashes involving
these new vehicles was estimated based on the successive test measurements
- and the corresponding injury costs - associated with the ANCAP
crash tests and the number of crashes involving ANCAP-tested models.
This expected cost was compared with the hypothetical cost of injuries
sustained in crashes involving these vehicles assuming that no improvements
in vehicle safety design had occurred since the initial ANCAP testing
in 1992. The safety benefits were calculated for ANCAP-tested cars
manufactured between 1992 and 1997, and variants with a similar
design, for the calendar year 1997 and also for the estimated lifetime
of these vehicles. The results of the study show significant safety
benefits from the design and equipment changes. In crashes occurring
in Australia in 1997 that involved these models and variants with
a similar design, the safety benefits from improvements in vehicle
design exceeded $400 million. Over the assumed 20-year lifetime
of these vehicles, the benefits from vehicle safety improvements
introduced in successive models was estimated as approximately $9.0
billion. These findings show the considerable impact of improvements
in vehicle safety design on the cost of road injuries to the community.
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