The Road Safety Commission welcomes the findings of a Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) study that reveals a potential 33% reduction in road trauma if all Australians were able to travel in the safest vehicles possible.
The Potential Road Safety Benefits of Making Safer Vehicle Choices in Australia study examined the potential road safety benefits of the entire Australian light vehicle fleet consisting of the safest available vehicles compared the actual vehicles involved in fatal and serious injury crashes in 2016.
“The Road Safety Commission promotes the importance of choosing the safest vehicle you can afford by consulting the ANCAP Safety Ratings or Used Car Safety Ratings Guide before shopping for your next car,” said Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner.
“The research released by MUARC today provides the evidence that hundreds of lives could be saved, and thousands of serious injuries stopped across Australia annually if we purchased the safest vehicle we could.”
MUARC undertook the study as part of the Vehicle Safety Research Group (VSRG)’s 2019-2020 research program, of which the Road Safety Commission is a member organisation.
Research lead and Deputy Director of the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), Associate Professor Stuart Newstead said the study considered a number of scenarios in its analysis, with one hypothetical scenario analysed revealing a potential maximum road trauma reduction of up to 59%.
“While this shows a significant potential gain, this benefit is unlikely to be achieved in reality as it would require significantly changing the age and market group profile of the entire fleet at a single point in time.”
“More realistically, as consumers we have the power to reach that one-third reduction if we actively choose the safest vehicles available to us,” Associate Professor Newstead concluded.
See Safe Vehicles for more information on choosing a safe new or used vehicle.
