THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VEHICLE SAFETY DESIGN CHANGES IN ACCIDENT AND INJURY REDUCTION

The numbers of, and trends in, road traffic casualties in Britain over the last twenty years are reviewed briefly, together with a short description of the relative contributions of different accident types to the total picture. The problems of making quantitative assessments of the effectiveness of vehicle safety design changes are discussed. In the area of active safety changes, where vision requirements, brakes, tires, handling and ergonomic factors are of concern, there appears to be an almost total absence of field studies aimed at measuring effectiveness. In the passive safety area a greater number of studies have been performed which demonstrate the success of seat belts, anti-burst door latches, head restraints and HPR laminated windscreen glass. Benefits from energy-absorbing steering assemblies, instrument panel improvements and vehicle structural changes have not been demonstrated statistically to result in measurable improvements. The effectiveness of vehicle front-end shape changes on pedestrians is mentioned. /Author/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vehicle Safety Legislation--Its Engineering and Social Implication Conference held at Bedfordshire, England on July 10-11, 1973.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institution of Mechanical Engineers

  1 Birdcage Walk
  London SW1H 9JJ,   England 
• Authors:
  • McKay, G M
• Publication Date: 1973

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 10 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash types; Fatalities; Measures of effectiveness; Prevention; Safety; Vehicle design; Vehicle safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Effectiveness
• Old TRIS Terms: Vehicular safety
• ITRD Terms: 1057: Air transport network; 1361: Brake; 1357: Car door; 1368: Dashboard; 9011: Design (overall design); 1357: Door (car); 1357: Door lock; 2029: Ergonomics; 9025: Front; 1399: Head restraint; 2163: Injury; 1357: Lock (car door); 1733: Pedestrian; 1665: Safety; 1476: Safety belt; 1447: Safety glass; 1309: Steering column; 1381: Tyre; 8119: United Kingdom; 1646: Vehicle handling; 6783: Visibility; 1311: Windscreen (veh)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00261851
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Report/Paper Numbers: No. 16 Conf Paper
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 22 1974 12:00AM