Abstract
A FIELD SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED TO MEASURE THE OUTAGE RATES OF VARIOUS VEHICLE SAFETY COMPONENTS. THE POPULATION OF VEHICLES SAMPLED HAD BEEN SUBJECT TO A RANDOM CHECKLANE VEHICLE INSPECTION PROGRAM WHICH ANNUALLY INSPECTED ABOUT 6% OF THE VEHICLES IN THE STATE. A RECENTLY DEVELOPED UNIFIED APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF MULTIVARIATE CATEGORICAL DATA WAS UTILIZED TO RELATE THE VARIOUS COMPONENT OUTAGE RATES TO THE AGE OF THE VEHICLE. A METHOD IS PRESENTED FOR UTILIZING COMMONLY AVAILABLE LEAST SQUARES REGRESSION PROGRAMS TO ACCOMPLISH THE WEIGHED LEAST SQUARES COMPUTATIONS. THE RESULTS RELATE COMPONENT OUTAGE RATES TO THE AGE OF THE VEHICLE AND HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR VEHICLE INSPECTION PROGRAMS.(Author/publisher).