The effects of car weight and power-to-weight ratio on crash severity

Fontaine, H.

Affiliations

¹Department of Evaluation and Accident Research, Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité, Arcueil, France

Abstract

The role played by car weight in occupant protection, and in aggressiveness towards other road users is well known. But it is also important to account for the influence of vehicle performance and its combination with criteria linked to the drivers, or to the type of collision. This paper aims at quantifying the effects of these explanatory variables on crash severity, in order to establish a hierarchy among these risk factors of fatality. The statistical analysis is made using logistic regression methods to model the risk of a driver being killed when involved in a crash. Initially the analysis concerns all crashes, then two crash types are considered: head-on collisions and single-car crashes.

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Cited By (1)

Year	Entry
1996	Wood DP, Mooney SJ. Car size and relative safety: fundamental theory and real life experience compared. In: Proceedings of the 1996 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 11-13, 1996; Dublin, Ireland.223-239.