On European roads, the dispersion of vehicle mass as well as the average vehicle mass are increasing. This has road safety consequences. Drivers in light cars have higher injury and death rates. This means that they have a higher risk of being injured or killed in a crash with a heavier vehicle. The research literature shows that large differences in vehicle mass are not only a threat for the safety of individual drivers, but also for the total number of casualties. A larger dispersion of mass will lead to more casualties. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively determine the influence of vehicle mass on the injury rate and the fatality rate in collisions between two passenger cars. This makes it possible to determine the effects of: - different vehicle masses on injury and fatality rates of individual drivers; - the increasing dispersion of vehicle mass on road safety; - the use of on average lighter cars by women, youths and elderly on their injury and fatality rates. Almost all analyses in this report have used crash data from the Dutch Road Crash Registration (BRON). Since 2001 it contains vehicle data, including the mass of vehicles involved. This study only analyses collisions between two passenger cars.
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