A study was undertaken to assess the benefits in reduced societal harm if manufacturers met the ECE frontal offset crash test at 64 km/h crash test speed, typically adopted in consumer tests. Using the same method as in a previous study (See ITRD E201298), estimates of likely injury reductions from compliance with the 64 km/h test were derived and then converted into likely annual harm savings and harm saved per vehicle. On the basis of evidence available, the total benefit likely to accrue if all cars complied with the 64 km/h crash test would be somewhere between 404 million and 520 million Australian dollars annually assuming a 100% fleet compliance. The break-even cost per car across its lifetime would be on average somewhere between 404 and 651 Australian dollars. The additional benefit above the mandated ADR 73/00 requirement would be of the order of an additional 24% to 36% harm reduction in frontal crashes. No data were available on any likely disbenefit resulting from designing for the higher crash test and further research is warrented to confirm this. These savings are conservative, based on more recent injury costs published by the Bureau of Transport Economics, Canberra, Australia. (A)
Abstract