The relationship was investigated between vehicle crashworthiness and both the year of manufacture and the year of first registration in New Zealand of New Zealand light passenger vehicles manufactured from 1964 to 2007 and crashing during 1991 to 2007. The latter analysis was aimed at assessing crashworthiness trends in the fleet of used imported vehicles in New Zealand whilst the former examined trends in the fleet as a whole. Analysis of trends by year of vehicle manufacture showed statistically significant improvement in the crashworthiness of New Zealand light passenger vehicles over the years of manufacture studied. Most of the measured improvement occurred over the years of manufacture from 1983 to 2005. Over this period, the risk of death or serious injury to drivers reduced by over 66 per cent for the fleet as a whole. Estimates of crashworthiness trends in the used import vehicle fleet by year of first registration in New Zealand from 1986 to 2007 showed statistically significant improvements in crashworthiness over these years. This analysis showed trends to improving crashworthiness of the fleet of used imported vehicles in New Zealand. The results of this report are based on a number of assumptions and warrant a number of qualifications that should be noted. (Author/publisher) For the main report see http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc287.pdf
Abstract