This study presents risk figures that describe passive safety, aggressivity, total safety, and accident involvement rates of 110 popular car models. The purpose of the figures is to serve the demands of consumers, society and car manufacturers and thereby to generate safer cars and a safer car fleet. The study is a sequel to the car safety studies performed by the Road and Transport Laboratory of the University of Oulu since the early 1990's. The methods of the earlier studies were improved by taking several new variables into account. Also the research material was complemented with the latest available accident data to include newer car models in the study, and the data of mileometer readings which was gathered in annual vehicle inspections to obtain more exact vehicle mileage estimates. This study estimates safety features of different car models. The authors have examined, on the one hand, the risk to be involved in an accident and, on the other hand, the risk to be injured once involved in an accident. The accident information used in this study is based on the database which consisted of over 700,000 traffic accident compensated by the motor vehicle liability insurance in Finland between 1987 and 1995. (A)
Abstract