Vehicle Safety Risk Assessment ? Project Overview and Initial Results

The goal of Queensland Transport?s Vehicle Safety Risk Assessment project is to obtain a more detailed picture of where crashes of various severity are occurring, the prevalence of various types of crash configuration and the influence of passenger car safety technology on road safety.

The safety of Australian passenger cars has improved substantially throughout the 1990?s due to various initiatives including the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), new Australian Design Rules and improved safety technology built into vehicles by manufacturers. However, the 1990?s also saw a change in the Australian new car market with the emergence of small Korean and Japanese cars and also a larger number of off-road passenger 4 wheel drives (4WDs).

The project will examine the impacts of the vehicle safety improvements and changes in the Australian car market as reflected in Queensland road crash data.

The project will use a recently completed link between Queensland Transport?s road crash database and registration database to allow an in-depth review of the Queensland crash data through a breakdown of crash information by speed zone, injury type and severity, number of vehicles, type of crash and vehicle details.

This paper will outline the objectives of the Vehicle Safety Risk Assessment Project and how the objectives are to be met including data analysis chain and limitations on the data. The paper will also include an initial analysis of the first set of crash data that has been linked with the registration computer.