Accident experience of passenger vehicles with four-wheel antilock braking systems

Padmanaban, Jeya; Lau, Edmund

Affiliations

¹JP Research, Los Altos, California

²Failure Analysis Associates, Inc., Menlo Park, California

Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of antilock braking systems (ABS) on accident and injury risk. Policereported data from Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina and the Fatal Accident Reporting System were examined. Accident rates were normalized using vehicle registration data. Examination of over 60,000 accidents showed the following in vehicles with ABS: (1) 9-11% reductions in overall accident rates, (2) 16-17% reductions in accidents on wet roads, (3) 6-9% reductions in accidents on dry roads, and (4) 7-16% reductions in injury rates under all road conditions. There was no measurable difference in fatal accident rates between ABS and nonABS vehicles. ABS seemed especially effective at reducing multivehicle crashes.

Cited Works (2)

Year	Entry
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Cited By (1)

Year	Entry
1997	Farmer CM, Lund AK, Trempel RE, Braver ER. Fatal crashes of passenger vehicles before and after adding antilock braking systems. Accid Anal Prev. November 1997;29(6):745-757.