Oz Raises Bar for Side-Impact Crash Protection

The Australian government legislates a new Australian Design Rule setting strict performance criteria for side-impact protection in new light vehicles.

The ADR – pole side impact performance – takes effect Nov. 1, 2017, new-model cars and July 1, 2018, for new light-commercial vehicles. The new standard means all new LVs will be subjected to new mandatory pole-side-impact test.

Federal Major Projects Minister Paul Fletcher says the ADR follows development of an international standard for side-impact crashes.

“This ADR is based on United Nations Global Technical Regulation 14, which sets strict performance criteria for light-passenger and commercial vehicles in side impacts with a narrow object such as a pole,” Fletcher says in a statement. “However, it will also improve occupant protection in other side impacts, including car-to-car impacts.”

Fletcher says side impacts account for more than 20% of Australian road deaths and a disproportionately high number of brain injuries, which carry a huge social cost.

“The new ADR is a major road safety initiative aimed at addressing this issue by setting performance criteria that require effective safety measures such as curtain side airbags, thorax airbags and better crash sensors,” he says.

It is estimated the new ADR will save 128 lives and avoid 195 severe or moderate brain injuries over 15 years while providing net benefits to the community of A$417 million ($299.5 million).

Fletcher says the implementation timetable is consistent with plans for enacting the UN rule in other parts of the world such as Japan and Europe, but he believes Australia will be the first country to adopt the standard.

CEO James Goodwin of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program calls the new ADR a welcome development that will lift vehicle safety standards and go a long way to helping save hundreds of lives.

“ANCAP has required vehicles to undergo a pole side impact test since 2003 in order to be eligible for a 5-star safety rating, which has led to a significant increase in the fitment of curtain airbags providing substantial reductions in injury in side impacts,” Goodwin says in a statement.

“We work to continually raise the safety bar in the vehicle fleet and will modify the pole side-impact test from 2018 to make it more demanding for new vehicles to be able to earn a 5-star safety rating.”

More than 1,000 people still die every year on Australia’s roads and it is estimated more than 30,000 are seriously injured in road crashes.