Benefit cost analysis is often used in setting road safetypriorities. The concept ofHarm was deueloped for assessing injury mitigation benefits from vehicle safety improvements. This study builds upon previous work the area. Harm reductionswere determined for a range of vehicle in safety measures for front seat occupants involved in frontal crashes. These included supplementary driver and passenger airbags (both fullsize and facebags), belt tighteners and webbing clanzps, seatbelt warning systems, improved seat and seatbelt geometry, padded steering wheels, better designof lower instrument panels, kneebars, padded head protection, and structural improvements. Injury reductions were estimated by body region and AIS improvement using available literature, unpublished data, and where necessary, expert group assessment. Likely costs for these measures usere determined from discussions with local automobile manufacturers, part suppliers, and vehicle importers, from overseas prices costed for Australian vehicles, and derived from first principles. Industryplans for the introduction of these measures NPWs, and percent of total trauma were also sought from the automotiue industry. Likelv BCRs, were then determined for each countermeasure and for packages of vehicle safety measures.
Keywords:
safety, accident, vehicle occupant, injury, countermeasure, cost-benefit, economic, harm, evaluation