Proof that airbags and ESC save lives

According to a report released by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), the number of road fatalities in Australia halved between 1990 and 2014. While BITRE attributes this to a number of factors including the availability of safer vehicles, the development of safer roads and improved law enforcement, offsetting factors such as increased driver distraction suggest that technology improvements, changes to legislation and interventionist activities including random breath testing are largely responsible for the huge turnaround.

The information sheet issued by the department focuses on the contribution of two particular technologies: the increased use of front and side airbags, as well as electronic stability control functionality.

Frontal airbags were introduced as a light vehicle inclusion around 1990 and by 2006 were a standard in around 90% of new vehicles. Take-up for passenger airbags has been slower; an assessment in 2014 found that while around 80% of light vehicles included driver airbags, only 55% employed passenger bags. The most effective device for mitigating trauma in front-impact crashes, frontal airbags are credited with a 25% reduction in front-impact driver fatalities and a 20% reduction in passenger deaths.

BITRE concedes that other vehicle occupant protection countermeasures used to meet performance-based standards and tests have also resulted in safety improvements but did not measure the impact levels of these initiatives.

Electronic stability control (ESC) was mandated for all new passenger cars in 2013, with compulsory inclusion in new light commercial vehicles due to follow in 2017. As the most effective way of reducing single-vehicle crashes, particularly ‘run-off road’ incidents, BITRE has attributed a 53% decrease in fatalities to the technology.

The two technologies are estimated to have reduced overall fatailty rates by 23%, relative to a base case without airbags and ESC. BITRE says this represents around half of the observed decline since 2007. Random breath testing, speed cameras, infrastructure improvements and speed limit reductions are also part of the picture, but increased distraction levels thanks to the influx of mobile devices may counteract the positive impact of these initiatives.

The report, inclusive of detailed analysis and external references, can be downloaded here.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/Charles Schug