Accident data and the passive safety of vehicles, or, can you rate the passive safety of vehicles from accident data?

Zobel, Robert

Affiliations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study made by Volkswagen, comparing the results from different institutes on the passive safety of vehicles. These institutes use accident data from the police or from insurance companies. They derive a rating from these figures and publish it as a guideline for the customer, "to choose safety."

At least their publications seek to give this impression:

Title of the leaflet of the British Ministry of Transportation: Buying a Car? Choose Safety.

The Australian Monash University Accident Research Centre uses the title: How does your car rate in a crash?

Folksam, a Swedish insurance company is very clear: How safe is your car?

Clearly they feel that their data can answer this question.

It is the purpose of this paper to summarize a number of observations which make it hard to believe that we are already in a position to evaluate the passive safety of vehicles from accident statistics alone.

Cited Works (1)

Year	Entry
1992	Cameron M, Mach T, Neiger D. Vehicle Crashworthiness Ratings: Victoria 1983-90 and NSW 1989-90 Crashes: Summary Report. Monash University Accident Research Centre; March 1992. Report No. 28.

Cited By (2)

Year	Entry
2003	Kreiss J-P, Zobel R, Busch S. Essential components of a statisticaly valid crashworthiness rating. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
1997	Achmus S, Zobel R. A more appropriate method to evaluate the passive safety of vehicles. In: Proceedings of the 1997 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 24-26, 1997; Hannover, Germany.371-384.