Working with the media to promote safer roads and vehicles.

For the first 50 years or so of motorization, efforts to reduce motor vehicle crash deaths and injuries focused almost exclusively on trying to prevent crashes by changing driver behavior through education. In the 1960s a science-based approach with a much wider range of countermeasures began to be adopted. Under this approach the importance of reducing the consequences of crashes also was recognized. Australia led the world in using some of these newer concepts to introduce the first laws to require motorcycle helmet and safety belt use in the 1960s. In the 1970-80s vehicle safety features designed to reduce the consequences of crashes were added to new cars, largely in response to government regulation. This presentation will review the history of vehicle safety design and the role of the media in creating a vehicle safety marketplace. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E211985.