ADELAIDE IN-DEPTH ACCIDENT STUDY 1975-1979. PART 6: CAR ACCIDENTS

This report contains descriptions of the causes and consequences of the accidents involving cars in a representative sample of road traffic accidents to which an ambulance was called in metropolitan Adelaide. The characteristics of the drivers are reviewed in relation to the causation of these accidents and to accident prevention measures in general and the role of vehicle factors in accident and injury causation is discussed with emphasis on the Australian Design Rules for Motor Vehicle Safety. Two hundred and sixty-two, or 86 per cent of the accidents in the survey involved one or more cars. Alcohol intoxication and inexperience in driving in traffic were the two characteristics of drivers that were most often obviously related to accident involvement. Vehicle defects played only a minor role. Seat belts were found to reduce the frequency and severity of injury; this was particularly so for the later inertia-reel belts which were also more likely to be worn. Seventy-nine per cent of drivers and 65 per cent of left front passengers wore a seat belt where one was available. Door latches and hinges, seat anchorages, and the steering wheel and instrument panel were either deficient in the crash or otherwise were frequently found to be objects causing injury to the occupants of the car.