The paper reviews the history of the production of vehicle crashworthiness ratings, based on real crash data, in Australia since 1990. The methods used in Europe and the USA are described, as well as their influence on the Australian developments. The Australian ratings published in 1992 and 1994 are summarised and the vehicle manufacturers' and importers' reactions to them are described.

The paper then outlines the preparation of new crashworthiness ratings of 1982-94 model Australian cars crashing during 1987-94 in the States of New South Wales and Victoria. The data covers over 305,000 cars involved in tow-away crashes in New South Wales, and around 64,000 drivers injured in crashes in the two States. The crashworthiness rating for each make/model measures the risk of a driver being killed or admitted to hospital when involved in a tow-away crash, derived from separate estimates of the driver injury risk and driver injury severity when injured. Logistic regression was used to take into account a number of factors which have been found to be strongly related to injury risk and severity, namely the driver sex and age, the speed limit at the crash location, and the number of vehicles involved.

The relationship of the crashworthiness ratings with the tare mass of each make/model was investigated. Previous research has suggested that the effect of vehicle mass is likely to be greater on the driver's risk of injury than on his/her injury severity. It has been suggested that the driver's injury severity reflects vehicle design to a greater extent. The results of the analysis support these propositions.