How do we prevent and mitigate crashes? Evidence from Australian at-scene in-depth crash investigations

The Centre for Automotive Safety Research’s conducts at-scene in-depth crash investigations in South Australia that allow detailed analysis of the crash in order to determine contributing factors to crashes and the interventions that could prevent or mitigate them. This initial analysis of such a dataset (n=116) showed that the most common contributing factors are human errors, but the interventions to prevent or mitigate the crashes are most commonly infrastructure treatments or vehicle technologies that eliminate the human error and/or reduce the vehicle’s speed prior to impact in the event of a human error.