Crash testing for real-world safety: what are the priorities for casualty reduction?

The introduction of European legislative and consumer crash testing requirements in the late 1990s has resulted in marked changes in the design of vehicle structures and restraint systems. Crash tested vehicles in the range of New Car Assessment Programmes typically show reduced injury assessment values from the dummies and lower levels of intrusion, particularly in frontal impacts. This paper examines real-world accident data to evaluate the changes that have taken place in car performance and the circumstances of injury in order to evaluate what new priorities there are in car occupant protection. Comparisons are made between older cars, built between 1991 and 1996 and newer cars, built up to 2000. The rate of fatal driver injury in newer cars is 24% lower than for the older cars. More car occupants now die in side impacts than in frontal impacts; 27% of these are seated on the far side of the vehicle. The numbers of fatalities in collisions with roadside objects virtually equals those killed in car to car impacts. The collision severities of fatal frontal impacts have not increased. Rear seat-belt use is low amongst fatally or seriously injured rear-seat passengers. For the covering abstract see ITRD E825082.