NHTSA began in 1975 to evaluate the effectiveness of vehicle safety technologies associated with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. By June 2014, NHTSA had evaluated the effectiveness of virtually all the life-saving technologies introduced in passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans from about 1960 up through about 2010. A statistical model estimates the number of lives saved from 1960 to 2012 by the combination of these life-saving technologies. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data for 1975 to 2012 documents the actual crash fatalities in vehicles that, especially in recent years, include many safety technologies. Using NHTSA’s published effectiveness estimates, the model estimates how many people would have died if the vehicles had not been equipped with any of the safety technologies. In addition to equipment compliant with specific FMVSS in effect at that time, the model tallies lives saved by installations in advance of the FMVSS, back to 1960, and by non-compulsory improvements, such as pretensioners and load limiters for seat belts. FARS data has been available since 1975, but an extension of the model allows estimates of lives saved in 1960 to 1974. A previous NHTSA study using the same methods estimated that vehicle safety technologies had saved 328,551 lives from 1960 through 2002. The agency now estimates 613,501 lives saved from 1960 through 2012. The annual number of lives saved grew from 115 in 1960, when a small number of people used lap belts, to 27,621 in 2012, when most cars and LTVs were equipped with numerous modern safety technologies and belt use on the road achieved 86 percent. (Author/publisher)
Abstract