Road safety can only be improved by a good knowledge of the real world of accidents. This study is based on an examination of 1.136 representative fatal accident police reports involving the death of 1400 motorists throughout France. Analysis of these fatalities produced a breakdown by front and rear seat positions, type of impact and type of obstacle. The results show the probable gains obtainable by: - Wearing of the seat belt in all seat positions (29% of fatalities could be prevented); - Adoption of secondary safety countermeasures (structural reinforcement plus sophisticate occupant protection measures) merely for restrained fatal victims of frontal and side impacts. In this case, an additional 19% of lives could be saved. These two stages of analysis point to the remaining fatalities (52%) for which savings in terms of lives saved would require primary safety measures (avoiding such accidents) or a reduction in impact severity). A cost-benefit study remains to be performed to pinpoint priorities in the field of secondary automotive safety among the range of available solutions.
Abstract