This research profiled 2006-2009 crash data and 2006-2012 registration data for West Australian passenger vehicles by fleet type: metropolitan corporate, rural corporate, government and private. It also examined crashes and occupant injuries by road user, for the 2012 registered new vehicles over 22 years as a baseline for evaluating different fleet purchasing scenarios.
The WA corporate and government fleet was found to have an over representation of aggressive vehicle market groups and to be growing in proportion of all registrations. The safety implications for both for the fleet drivers and the general public on transfer to private ownership were addressed by evaluating alternative vehicle purchasing scenarios.
The best outcome in terms of reductions in the societal cost of crashes and occupant injuries was found with the scenario which mandated 100% fitment of forward collision and autonomous emergency braking systems operating at all speeds to fleet vehicles. This scenario produced societal savings of $117 million and prevented serious and fatal injuries to over 200 road users.
The best outcomes that came within fleet buyer break-even costs were vehicle substitution scenarios. Purchasing of large vehicles instead of medium and large SUVs in metropolitan areas and medium SUVs instead of large SUVs in rural areas, not only was estimated to save society $17 million in crash related costs but also was estimated to be purchased for less than corporate and government fleets under current purchasing practices.
Road safety benefit:
The research was beneficial to Government in that the research provides underpinning modelling to support improvements in the safety of vehicles in the fleet. This research has identified a set of priorities on which the WA government can focus to maximise the future safety of the WA vehicle fleet. Forward collision detection and mitigation technologies that operate at all speeds is the technology of those considered that offers the highest potential for reducing serious trauma and community costs in WA.
Improving two critical areas of fleet purchasing behaviour also offers the potential for significant road trauma savings in WA:
- Purchase of vehicles with the highest possible crash worthiness is the first priority.
- Reducing the aggressivity of the commercial SUV fleet through encouraging or incentivising downsizing of the SUV fleet or substitution for large cars and making good aggressivity performance a priority in the purchasing process.
