Draft regulation Impact Statement for Underrun Protection a draft statement inviting discussion and comments from parties affected by the proposed heavy commercial vehicle safety initiative January 2007 Report Documentation Page
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RecommendationA number of regulatory and non-regulatory options were considered and Option 8 is the recommended option: Option 8: An Australian Design Rule (ADR) adopting international standard UNECE R 93 for front Underrun Protection (UP) for rigid and articulated heavy commercial vehicles with a GVM greater than 7.5 tonnes (some NB2 and all NC category vehicles). This would apply to all new vehicles. It is further recommended that the bumper requirements in ADR 42/04 be withdrawn, without mandating replacement rear UP. It is not recommended that side UP be mandated. The recommendation for front UP is based on the assumption that the states and territories would at the same time raise the 6 tonne limit on steered axles to account for an additional 100 kg front axle load. Otherwise the recommendation would require further analysis and may change. The development, implementation and review of Australian Design Rules (ADRs) is an established process. If there is broad public agreement to the recommendations, an ADR can be determined under the authority of the Minister for Transport and Regional Services under section 7 of the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989. After this, further development of the ADR would be considered as part of the normal program of ADR review and revision. BackgroundThe impact that road crashes have on society is significant. Individuals injured in crashes must deal with pain and suffering, medical costs, wage loss, higher insurance premium rates, and vehicle repair costs. For society as a whole, road crashes result in enormous costs in terms of lost productivity and property damage and cost the Australian economy approximately $15 billion (in 1995 $), or 2 percent of GDP. This translates to an annual average of $1315 for every person in Australia. In terms of traffic safety, issues relating to heavy commercial vehicles have drawn considerable attention from policy makers, road safety engineers and the general public. For the purposes of this Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), a heavy commercial vehicle is defined as a goods carrying vehicle with a Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) greater than 3.5 tonnes. Heavy commercial vehicles have many unique operating characteristics which have an effect on crash severity, such as high gross mass, long vehicle length and relatively long stopping distances. Aggregate data and previous research has shown that crashes involving trucks colliding with passenger cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians have an increased likelihood of producing a severe injury or fatality. This increase is in a large part due to the incompatibility between vehicles due to geometric and mass differences. The compatibility of a vehicle is a combination of its crashworthiness and its aggressivity when involved in crashes with vehicles in the fleet. While crashworthiness focuses on the capability of a vehicle to protect its occupants in a collision, aggressivity is measured in terms of the casualties to occupants of the other vehicle involved in the collision. Crashworthiness is sometimes referred to as self-protection while aggressivity is sometimes referred to as partner-protection. Crash incompatibility is of concern in all vehicle-to-vehicle collisions. Heavy commercial vehicle-to-car collisions are one specific aspect of this problem but another one relates to heavy commercial vehicle-to-vulnerable road user collisions, such as motorcycles, bicycles and non-vehicles (ie pedestrians). This RIS addresses a particular type of crash event, which is a subset of heavy commercial vehicle crashes and referred to as a “heavy vehicle underrun crash”. A heavy vehicle underrun crash occurs when a passenger car, motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian slides underneath the front, side, or rear end of a heavy commercial vehicle. Vulnerable road users such as motorcyclists, bicycle riders and pedestrians tend to feature in side underruns with heavy vehicles. Underrun collisions in recent times have become an increasing cause for concern in the Australian community and there have been calls from various sections of the community for addressing the resultant trauma. Heavy commercial vehicle Underrun Protection (UP) has a long history of investigation. European research organizations as well as heavy commercial vehicle manufacturers have been studying the subject since the 80s, initially commencing with rear and side UP and followed by front UP. Research in Australia, Canada, and the United States commenced in the late 90s and focused mainly on rear underruns, which in Australia contributes to only about 10 per cent of underrun trauma. In recent years the member countries of the European Union have been instrumental in financing and managing research efforts directed at generating solutions for addressing front underrun trauma, which in Australia accounts for 75 per cent of underrun trauma. Protection for vulnerable road users and passenger car occupants from heavy commercial vehicle underrun is now mandatory in Europe for commercial vehicles exceeding a GVM of 3.5 tonnes. Some member countries of ASEAN and the three most populous and fast growing economies of China, India and Brazil also have some form of UP requirements for heavy commercial vehicles. Heavy commercial vehicles represent 3.3 percent of all registered vehicles in Australia and account for 7.5 percent of total kilometres driven on public roads (ABS 9309.0: 2001). Appendix 1 describes the various categories of goods vehicles as listed in the Australian Design Rules while Appendix 2 illustrates the 13 types of heavy commercial vehicles operating on Australian roads. For all fatalities resulting from a fatal crash on Australian roads, approximately one in fifteen crashes involves a heavy commercial vehicle engaging with a passenger car and one in forty with a vulnerable road user such as a motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian (ATSB 2002a). Twenty percent of fatal crashes involve passenger cars and heavy commercial vehicles engaging with each other (ATSB 1997). Sixty-five per cent of these crashes feature collisions with the front ends of both vehicles and less than 10 per cent feature the front end of the passenger car engaging with the rear end of the heavy commercial vehicle. Table 1 shows the proportions of different types of vehicles and road users that have been involved in fatal underrun crashes with articulated commercial vehicles in the period 1993 to 2002. It shows that the majority (about 82%) of injured persons are passenger car occupants. Only a few percent of the collisions involving trucks result in serious injuries or fatalities to truck occupants. This suggests that UP could be an effective tool to reduce the estimated fifty fatalities each year arising from heavy commercial vehicle underrun collisions. Table 1: Proportion of road user groups involved in fatal underrun crashes with articulated commercial vehicles, 1993 to 2002
Source: ATSB, FCD, 1993-2002 Note: Totals do not add to 100 per cent due to rounding of figures Directory: barreirastecnicas -> pontofocal -> textos -> regulamentos pontofocal -> Ind- 2001 0382 nl- en regulamentos -> Kenya standard ks 06-77: 1978 ics 13. 340 Download 5.27 Mb. Share with your friends:
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