TRENDS IN FATALITIES ASSOCIATED WITH BULL-BARS, 1990-1992

The increasing use of bull-bars in the Australian vehicle fleet and growing concerns about the effects of such vehicular modifications on the safety of pedestrians and other road users have prompted the Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS) to begin collecting data on the number of vehicles so modified that were involved in fatal accidents of all kinds. This paper sets out to analyse the data available to date, which are limited to the years 1990 and 1992. These data indicate that bull-bars were associated with approximately 29 percent of road trauma fatalities in those two years, which is about twice the rate one might have expected from a null hypothesis based on perceived usage rates. As anticipated, the figures show that bull-bars were over-represented in fatal pedestrian crashes and are rising rapidly in proportion to all such fatalities. In addition, this report attempts to estimate the number of likely additional fatalities attributable to bull-bars and postulates a quantitative relationship between bull-bar involvement and trends in FORS road fatality data since 1980. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. E200025.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/1864352418
• Corporate Authors:

  Queensland University of Technology

  School of Civil Engineering
  Brisbane,   Australia 
• Authors:
  • BOWD, D
• Conference:
  • INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION, RECONSTRUCTION, INTERPRETATION AND THE LAW, 2ND, 1997, BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
• Publication Date: 1997

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 199-210

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bars (Building materials); Bumpers; Conferences; Crash severity; Crashes; Fatalities; Injuries; Injury severity; Pedestrians; Safety; Vehicle components; Vehicles
• ITRD Terms: 1643: Accident; 3461: Bar; 1352: Bumper; 1354: Components of the vehicle; 8525: Conference; 1602: Fatality; 2163: Injury; 1733: Pedestrian; 1665: Safety; 1623: Severity (accid, injury); 1255: Vehicle
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00778994
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• ISBN: 1-86435-241-8
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 7 1999 12:00AM