Passenger vehicle safety in Australasia for different driver groups

Vehicle fleets in developed countries have benefitted from improved technology and regulation leading to safer vehicles. Nevertheless, for various reasons the public do not necessarily choose particular makes and models of cars according to their safety performance. This study aimed to identify areas for potential crashworthiness improvement in the Australasian fleets by studying the distribution of these fleets according to vehicle age and estimated crashworthiness. We used an existing database that encompassed the vast majority of the crash fleets studied, with existing estimates of crashworthiness generated by the Australasian Used Car Safety Ratings project. There were clear tendencies for older and younger people to be driving less safe vehicles that were also generally older. Given that older drivers are more fragile, and hence more liable to be injured in crashes, and younger drivers have a greater propensity to crash, it is clearly undesirable that these driver groups have the least crashworthy vehicles. Some suggestions are made to encourage safer vehicle choices.