- 13 Jan 20 ABC: Toyota, Mazda and Suzuki issue voluntary recalls for more than 18,000 cars fitted with Takata airbags - built between 1996 & 1999
- 2 Dec 19 Interesting Engineering: Vodafone Demos How 5G Improves The Safety of Connected Cars for Urban Mobility for The First Time in Italy - includes ISA
- 7 Nov 19 ABC: New urgent recall for BMWs with different type of faulty Takata airbags.
- 6 Nov 19 BBC: Uber in fatal crash had safety flaws say US investigators.
- 19 Oct 19 NZ Doctor: Safety initiative set to reduce number of children without car restraints [child restraint donations)
- 13 Oct 19 Transport for NSW: Requirements for vehicle frontal protection systems [bullbars] fitted to light vehicles
- 7 Oct 19 Cision: Western
Express deploys 3,000 E-SMART units [with ISA] to make its truck fleet
one of the safest and most innovative in the industry. See Speed Control
- 1 Oct 19 Uber: All
new vehicles entering the [Uber Australia] platform [from 1 Oct
2019] must have a 5-star ANCAP safety rating or equivalent [Expands to all vehicles from 1 Oct 2021] (thanks ANCAP)
- 28 Sep 19 Japan Today: Australia uses new technology to catch drivers on phones.
- 28 Sep 19 The Guardian: Woman suffers head injuries and children injured in NSW bus crash (status of seat belt wearing unknown but the bus would have been equipped with 3-point seat belts)
- 23 Sep 19 Japan Today: 22 killed in bus crash in Pakistan (see busbelts)
- 23 Sep 19 Register-Herald (West Virginia): Using child safety seats correctly improves survival chances.
- 13 Sep 19 New Scientist: A single severe head injury can trigger long-term brain damage (importance of head-protecting side curtains)
- 12 Sep 19 New Scientist: The surprising future of driving: cars that spy on your every move (spy?? - see Automated Vehicles and telematics)
- 2 Aug 19 Global NCAP: Joan Claybrook's speech at the Global NCAP dinner to celebrate 40 years of NCAP - some fascinting insight into early crash-testing
- 1 Jun 19 Intelligent Transport: Are you ready to speed up the roll out of intelligent speed assistance? (see Speed Control)
- 28 May 19 ANCAP: Safety prioritised with 5 stars for Toyota HiAce and Nissan Leaf EV, yet the opposite for Jeep Wrangler at 1 star
- comment: this is an important outcome for Australian tradies with the
5-star Hiace van providing good occupant protection as well as key
crash avoidance features such as autonomous emergency braking, lane
support systems, seat belt reminders for all seats and speed assistance functions that help drivers stay within the speed limits. Congratulations to Toyota!
- 21 May 19 ABC: Niki Lauda, Formula One legend and a three-time world champion, dies aged 70.
- 17 May 19 The Motor Report: Will Big Brother start limiting Aussie speeds? [the article is totally confused about ISA and top speed limiting]
- 2 May 19 ETSC: European Parliament backs new vehicle safety standards - including overridable Intelligent Speed Assistance.
- 29 Apr 19 Japan Today: Rear seats of cars need better safety equipment, study says [IIHS study of US crashes - see also this presentation (pages 18 & 19) and Rear seat occupant safety from 2007!]
- 28 Apr 19 AutobodyNews: Did You Know? Speeding Is a Neglected Problem [in the USA] + IIHS: Speed limit increases are tied to 37,000 deaths over 25 years + A national forum to develop a model speed management pilot program - see also Speed Control]
- 28 Apr 19 New Scientist: Machine mind hack: The new threat that could scupper the AI revolution. [see autonomous cars]
- 18 Apr 19 Japan Times: Japan debuts safety steps for foreign drivers amid rise in accidents.
- 5 Mar 19 New Scientist: Tesla’s autopilot tricked into driving on the wrong side of the road.
- 22 Mar 19 ABC: Parents urge others to install reversing cameras after toddler run over in driveway [cameras assist but are no substitute for adult supervision]
- 18 Mar 19 New Scientist: Hacking just 1 in 10 cars could gridlock all of the roads in Manhattan
- 28 Jan 19 AAP ($):
- 25 Jan 19 CarAdvice: "SAFETY DOESN'T COME AT A PRICE" IN CHILD SEATS - STUDY
- 11 Jan 19 ETSC: MEPs back new road and vehicle safety rules - AEB & ISA to be regulated across Europe
- 8 Jan 19 Japan Today: Ford recalls over 953,000 vehicles [globally] to replace Takata inflators.
- 3 Jan 19 ABC: Victoria records lowest road toll ever, but is it really possible to get to zero?
- 22 Nov 18 SMH: Not ideal: Old cars account for 80 per cent of teenage drivers' deaths.
- 31 Oct 18 ETSC: London introduces bus safety standard, including Intelligent Speed Assistance on all new vehicles + Hype around automated cars is dangerously confusing drivers says Euro NCAP
- 21 Oct 18 IOL: Uber launches new Safety Toolkit - "Speed alerts: A feature which reminds drivers and delivery partners to maintain a safe speed within the posted speed limits."
- 18 Oct 18 ETSC: Car industry attempting to weaken the European Commission’s proposals on new vehicle safety measures - "Intelligent Speed Assistance: why does ACEA not back a technology currently being sold by a majority of its members?"
- 4 Oct 18: Ubicar has introduced a telematics safety product in Australia. Sydney's Northern Beaches Council has a safe driving competition for residents.
- 3 Oct 18 News.com.au: Mazda CX-8 has safety technology that could save your life
Modern cars have some mind-boggling safety tech these days. But how does it work?
- 19 Sep 18 Global NCAP: Stop-the-Crash India - 26th September 2018 - held in conjunction with the Global NCAP World Congress in Delhi.
- 29 Aug 18 Japan Today: Self-driving taxi with paying passengers tested in Tokyo in world first + Rand: How Many Miles of Driving Would It Take to Demonstrate Autonomous Vehicle Reliability? (see also this comment on a Tesla crash)
- 22 Aug 18 TfNSW: New bus technical specifications - New requirements (TS150) for warning signs and flashing lights on school buses to apply from February 2019. This is based on the Heavy Vehicle (Vehicle Standards) National Regulation. Comment: In 1995 Dr Alec Fisher and I conducted a review of school bus warning systems. (more info, ESV paper)
One of the main conclusions was that the yellow turn signals being used
on school buses at the time were woefully inadequate for traffic
on high-speed roads on bright days, when their signal
range was typically around 50 metres. We recommended much brighter
lights be used and showed that the lights in use on school buses in the
USA were suitable. Nothing changed! Tasmania introduced bright lights on its school buses in 1996. The Draft National Heavy Vehicle Inspection Manual,
pubished by the NRTC in 2001, had this note: "Note: for optimum signal
range in bright daylight the on-axis intensity is required to be no
less than 1500cd. This is about six times brighter than typical turn
signals." Several Australian States and Territories picked up these
requirements, which were then included in the National Regulations.
So... after 30 years our research has become law in NSW.
- 2 Aug 18 ABC: ACCC issues fresh warning to replace 'ticking time bomb' Takata airbags. + FCAI: Check if your vehicle is affected by the Takata airbag recall.
- 1 Jun 18 ETSC: New EU vehicle safety standards could prevent 25,000 deaths within 15 years + ETSC raises questions over driver understanding of lane change systems + OECD report on automation challenges belief that self-driving vehicles will wipe out 90% of road crashes + Speed awareness courses more effective than fines + US: Fatal collisions with pedestrians increasingly likely to involve SUVs and high-powered vehicles (an excellent package of vehicle safety information)
- 1 Jun 18 ACRS: The latest Journal from ACRS has my article "Telematics and Vehicle Safety"
- 25 May 18 Bloomberg: Man Dies After Tesla Crashes Into San Francisco Area Pond (uncertain if it was on autopilot) + Japan Times: Uber ends self-driving program in Arizona after fatal crash, to shed 300 jobs.
- 18 May 18 Stop the Crash: Global NCAP and Stop the Crash Partnership welcome new EU regulations on vehicle safety - AEB and ISA. Details at Europa.eu.
- 1 May 18 ETSC: OECD study says inappropriate speed responsible for up to 30% of all fatal crashes + European Commission set to announce major new road safety package (16th May) + Latest Euro NCAP five-star rating scheme includes cyclist-detection Autonomous Emergency Braking.
- 1 May 18 ANCAP: Five-year funding for vital car safety program.
- 12 Apr 18 ABC: 'Smart' speed bumps installed at Curtin University to punish speeding drivers. See also Badennove: Intelligent Speed Bump
- 3 Apr 18 (A developing theme here?) AFR: Tesla Model X driver death raises questions about autopilot.
- 20 Mar 18 ABC: Uber suspends self-driving car tests after pedestrian death in Arizona
(Comment: Maybe a condition of self-driving car approvals should be
“good” pedestrian protection (impact tests) and good performance in the
Euro NCAP pedestrian AEB test - there are now many models that meet
these criteria. Update: more details about the crash - it was a Volvo XC90 which had pedestrian AEB but failed to react in time. The XC90 has "acceptable" pedestrian impact protection
and so the above suggestion (good protection) would likely not have
changed the outcome but clearly it makes sense as a requirement for all
driverless cars)
- 20 Mar 18 Global NCAP: Make ‘America First’ In Pedestrian Protection Global NCAP Tells Donald Trump
(Note that Australia has not signed up to the international pedestrian
protection regulation - GTR9 or UN-R127 - despite claims to have
done so in official submissions to WHO: Status Report on Road Safety 2015: pages 46, 67 & 85 - map of Australia should be yellow like the USA)
- 16 Feb 18 Transport NSW: Road Safety Plan 2021
- comment: "Only 38 per cent of cars and other light vehicles on NSW
roads are Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) 5-star safety
rated..." This is actually a remarkably high value for a fleet that is,
on average, 11 years old. The 38% prediction aligns with the estimate
made in this 2015 ESV paper "Vehicle Safety Trends and the Influence of NCAP Safety Ratings" (which is not referenced in the document).
- 6 Feb 18 British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA): Research Reveals Telematics Based [UK car insurance] Policies Almost Reaches One Million Mark (thanks Richard Tooth) - see PHYD insurance.
- 1 Feb 18 SMH: Police launch Operation Rolling Thunder crackdown after fatal truck crashes - see these links from the 1980s!
- 25 Jan 18 ABC: This is every road death since 1989 - graphic inter-active resource
- 5 Jan 18 SMH: Black spot program 'fatally flawed and federal governments complacent' on road safety: expert.
- 30 Dec 17 Al Jazeera: Will self-driving cars do more harm than good?
- 30 Dec 17 Wards: Facelifts Costly to Some Vehicles’ Safety Ratings + Euro NCAP: Fading Stars (Fiat Punto zero stars)
- 15 Dec 17 Fleet Owner (USA): Speeding more prevalent among motorists than truckers, CVSA enforcement blitz find...the
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which began a major push
to reduce speeding-related vehicle crashes on U.S. roads back in late
July by encouraging more aggressive enforcement of speed limit laws and
the wider adoption “intelligent speed adaptation systems.”
- 5 Dec 17 Badennove: Intelligent Speed Bump + Youtube: This speed bump is filled with liquid that hardens if you go too fast - a clever way to discourage speeding motorists while minimising discomfort to drivers who keep to the speed limit. It uses a dilatant (non-Newtonian) fluid which stiffens if deformed too quickly.
- 3 Nov 17 ETSC: Global NCAP looks to boost take-up of speed assistance systems worldwide + Global NCAP: Report of the Seminar on Advancing Speed Assistance Systems.
- 22 Aug 17 Transportation today: US should implement new policies to combat motorist deaths due to excessive speeding, NTSB report says + NTSB: Reducing Speeding-Related Crashes Involving Passenger Vehicles..."Intelligent
speed adaptation is an effective vehicle technology to reduce
speeding...Recommendation: Incentivize passenger vehicle manufacturers
and consumers to adopt intelligent speed adaptation (ISA) systems by,
for example, including ISA in the New Car Assessment Program."
- 17 Aug 17 Courier Mail: Ford Focus recall: Models made between April 2011 and September 2009 featured in safety recall [fuel tank cracking]
- 15 Aug 17 ABC: Robot hijacking threat in homes, cars could paralyse robotics industry, cyber expert warns.
- 25 Jul 17 ABC: Takata airbag recall process leaves drivers with 'ticking time-bombs', Choice says
[Opinion: Although this is a serious issue the number of vehicles with
potentially dangerous airbags is very small - it is understood that
most vehicles on the Australian recall list
have airbag units that are not dangerous but, since it is impossible to
determine the defective ones, they all need to be replaced. The main
issues have been obtaining a sufficient number of replacement units to meet demand
and, in particular, contacting the owners of vehicles that are, in some
cases, more than 15 years old. Consumer Reports USA has some useful information on this issue. Frontal airbags have been a key factor
in the remarkable improvement in occupant safety over the past two decades
- it is estimated that they have prevented more than 2,000 deaths and
20,000 serious injuries to Australian drivers since 1997.]
- 28 Mar 17 ABC15: Tempe Police: Self-driving Uber vehicle involved in rollover + Uber to Suspend Autonomous Tests After Arizona Accident.
- 20 Feb 17 BBC: Argentina coach crash: At least 19 killed near border with Chile [an example of the potential benefits of 3-point seat belts and rollover strength for buses. Note this horrific crash was not reported in any other western media]
- 11 Feb 17 ETSC: EU transport ministers back 'ambitious' vehicle safety improvements.
- 11 Feb 17 AAP ($):
- 3 Jan 17 SMH: Minister says help your kids buy a safer car to reduce road toll (see Young Drivers)
- Nissan Qashqai gets five-stars, and a reprimand (no AEB)
Earlier road safety news
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Earlier Green News.
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vehicles (not just SUVs). THE
DANGER TO YOUNG PEDESTRIANS FROM REVERSING MOTOR VEHICLES - ESV03
