Safer vehicles
Increasing the proportion of vehicles on Victoria’s roads with high standard safety features will substantially reduce risks for all road users – drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists.
Vehicles with high standard safety features reduce not only the likelihood of crashes occurring, but also the severity of crash outcomes on all those involved, whether they are within or outside the vehicle.
Australasian research indicates that if each motorist upgraded their vehicle to the safest in its class, road trauma would immediately drop by up to one-third.
About 85 per cent of new cars tested by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in 2006 achieved a four or five star safety rating compared to only 69 per cent in 2001.
In Victoria in 2006, approximately 20 per cent of all new vehicles sold achieved the maximum safety rating of five stars, compared to some countries in Europe where 85 per cent of vehicles sold achieve the maximum rating. The take up of advanced safety features such as electronic stability control (ESC) is about 70 per cent in new vehicles sold in leading European countries. In Victoria, less than 40 per cent of new vehicles sold have this lifesaving technology and only about a third have side curtain airbags. These take up rates are above the average take up rates for the rest of the nation.
Improving the average level of safety of vehicles on Victoria’s roads – as measured by crashworthiness ratings and the presence of electronic stability control, side curtain air bags and other head protecting technologies – will significantly reduce fatalities and serious injuries resulting from crashes.
To achieve these improvements, manufacturers, government agencies and consumers must work together to raise the standard of vehicle safety and to ensure that Victoria and Australia catch up with and match the best practice vehicle safety standards set in Europe and the United States.
Next generation technologies such as intelligent speed assist (ISA) and fatigue monitoring devices must also be refined and demonstrated to develop a market for these products.
With corporate safety initiatives in their infancy, it is also important for companies – both public and private – to be encouraged and supported in introducing safe vehicle lease/purchase policies.
What the strategy will do
arrive alive 2008-2017 will improve vehicle safety in Victoria through the following measures:
- Accelerating the introduction of vehicle safety features, in particular electronic stability control and head protecting technologies such as side curtain airbags.
- Raising awareness of and, in turn, creating consumer and organisational demand for vehicle safety features including intelligent speed assist, electronic stability control, air bags, seatbelt reminders, anti-lock braking, and frontal protection.
- Exploring opportunities to provide incentives for consumers to purchase safer vehicles.
- Directly supporting the conduct of crash testing and database analysis to ensure that contemporary and scientifically accurate information is available to the Victorian community about the safety performance of new and used cars.
- Encouraging customer take up of Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) and Used Car Safety Rating information when purchasing vehicles.
- Addressing OHS issues in co-operation with WorkSafe to ensure that helpful and accurate guidance is provided to fleet managers when choosing vehicles for employees.
- Assessing and demonstrating next generation safety technologies with a view to creating future markets for the most effective of these technologies.
- Working with vehicle manufacturers and the ANCAP Board to enable consumers to be aware of the safety ratings of cars at the time of purchase.
