Fast way to cut accident figures
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Birmingham University Accident Research Unit head favours .minimum bhp per ton for hgv in order to reduce speed differentials between cars and commercials on motorways
ROAD ACCIDENTS always happen to someone else. You see pictures of them in the newspapers, you may be held up because of one on the motorway — but you don't get involved in them.
We climb in our lorries or cars believing that our own guardian angel is watching over us. But I'm sorry to have to report, writes David Wilcox, that the angel looked the other way 266,000 times last year, and he's not expected to be anymore attentive this year either.
I'll quote this country's latest annual accident statistics, not because of their shock value but because I for one did not realise the size of the problem. There were 266,000 injury-producing road accidents. There were 6,500 fatalities.
Experts put a value on this. This includes the cost of damage to vehicles, property, medical and police costs, and the value of the production lost through you being laid up in hospital — or 6 ft under the ground. Using these calculations, the "average" road accident fatality costs the country £100,000, and the total cost of all Britain's road accidents in a year is a staggering £2,000 million.
With a problem of this magnitude there are equally large benefits to be had if you tackle it. Spearheading the country's road accident research is a small team at the Department of Transportation and Environmental Planning at the University of Birmingham. Head of this Accident Research Unit and reader in traffic safety is Doctor Murray Mackay.
"It really started in 1964," he said. "Until then, research had been based mainly on second-hand information from the police or insurance companies, whereas I thought that the people who did the research should really be the ones who went to the scene of the accident."
Doctor Mackay set up a specialised team, 20 strong, which includes a wide range of skills such as engineering, physics, medicine and psychology.
Financial support for the unit comes mainly from the Government because of the work the Department of Transport commissions the team to carry out, and from motor manufacturers and component companies who also use the unit.
In its 16-year history the unit has studied several thousand accidents that have occurred in the Birmingham area, from sub
urban bumps to motorway pileups.
The two main areas of study at present are crash performance and accident cause. "Looking at crash performance we examine how the complete car and its various components such as the windscreen, steering column and seats stand-up in a crash.•Accident causation work involves looking at such things as road user behaviour and environmental factors.'" Much of the unit's work is involved with legislation. Said Doctor Mackay: "Extensive safety legislation for car design was a road that the USA went down in the 1960s, but much of it was based on inadequate knowledge. For instance, on the basis that many injuries are caused by vehicle occOpants being thrown out in an accident, the USA introduced anti-burst door lock legislation — and then sat back.
"What we do is monitor and evaluate how effective the legis lation is by continuing to study the accidents. If safety legislation is spot on first time round its more through good luck than judgment."
In the case of road accidents involving pedestrians the unit's well-marked cars will arrive shortly after the ambulance, when everything is still largely as it was when the accident oc
curred. "At pedestrian accidents it's important that we get there quickly because there is often so little damage to the vehicle that it is difficult to detect after the event.
Skid marks are measured and things such as blood stains, road cambers and surfaces noted, as are small items such as marks in the dirt on a car's bonnet. The team will then collect injury data from the hospital.
This research in pedestrianinvolved accidents can produce real benefits and in the past has often been neglected. The ex
tent of a pedestrian's injuries will depend greatly on the shape of the car that hits him or her. So the accident research unit looks at the contours of a car, its sharp edges, the height, length and angle of the bonnet and the height and shape of the front bumper.
In accidents where the injuries are to the vehicles' occupants Doctor' Mackay's team will usually wait a couple of days and .then inspect the damaged cars in the garages and only then will they visit the scene and reconstruct the accident. Medical evidence again comes from the hospital and the vehicle occupants are asked to fill in a questionnaire.
-We are not interested in whose fault it was, we are trying to gauge the protection that the car gave to the occupants. For instance, we try to match a dent in the sun visor with a bruise on the driver's forehead," he said., After attempting to account for every injury in this way the team hopes to see which parts of the car are giving protection — and which are inflicting the injuries.
And there is no doubt that the team's work in this field is paying off. Doctor Mackay told me that the unit has contributed towards seat-belt legislation (although politics have put paid to this), wirtdscreen, steering column, anti-burst door lock and seat design.
Furthermore, the unit's work on the external shape of the car and its effect on pedestrians in accidents is being noted by car manufacturers. "The shape of the vehicle is always going to be a compromise," said Murray Mackay. "The engineer wants one design, the stylist wants another and we want it different again.
It was encouraging to hear that progress is being made and Doctor Mackay illustrated this in his comment: "If I was going to have my accident I would have it in a modern car."
An oft-quoted excuse in the past for not devoting more time and money to the development of safer cars was that ''you can't sell safety". Is this still true today?
"Not strictly," said Murray Mackay. "There is a far greater awareness of safety. Manufacturers such as Saab, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Rover all produce cars that are good from a safety angle. The growth in the child safety seat market also demonstrates that you can sell safety if you really want to."' Doctor Mackay's team has not been commissioned to carry out any specific studies about commercial vehicle safety, although a proportion of the accidents studied involve cornmercials.
"Manufacturers are less inclined to develop safer trucks than develop safer cars because the numbers sold are so much smaller," he explained. "Therefore safety research for a truck is less cost-effective for the manufacturer."
The biggest factor in commercial vehicle road safety is compatibility — artics in particular are so much bigger than cars. This leads to the underrun type of accident when cars disappear under the tail or front bumper in end-to-end collisions. For this reason Doctor Mackay applauds the trend towards lowering the front bumper on modern trucks and the use of the Quinton Hazell Underrider underrun guard.
This incompatibility of commercial vehicles is also in terms of speed and this is most apparent on motorways.
"Most of the accidents we have looked at that involve lorries have been on motorways," he said. "This is not only because a higher proportion of lorries use these, but also because there is such a large speed differential — cars are doing 70mph while many trucks are down to 40 or 50mph.'" Contrary to popular belief, motorways are quite safe in terms of accidents per mile when compared with normal roads. But when motorway accidents do occur they tend to be rather more spectacular and get more media coverage which leads us to think they are more frequent than is the case. Generally speaking, Doctor Mackay felt that the motorway speed limits for commercials and cars are about right.
"But recently, speed limits have become mixed up in some respects; they are there for safety, they are not fuel economy measures. Again, it's differential speeds rather than absolute speeds that lead to the accidents, so I'm in favour of minimum speed limits as well," he said.
Doctor Mackay also likes the American system of posted speed limits — a different, realistic speed limit is set for each stretch of road or -bend, rather than the overall blanket limit we generally use.
In an accident, lorry drivers tend to suffer in one of three ways. Owing to the lack of seat belts and the presence of a large windscreen, drivers are often ejected, causing severe injuries.
Alternatively, the load retention system can fail and the load penetrates the cab from the rear. Lastly, in a collision with the rear of a flat lorry or trailer the cab is often crushed at the height of a driver's knees.
Doctor Mackay pointed to tyres as having made a significant contribution to road safety. "Modern tyres are very good, particularly their wet grip performance. But road surfaces and tyres could be better matched. It really is nonsensical that the people who develop the road surfaces don't talk to the tyre manufacturers and viceversa." Dunlop's Delugrip road surface is a notable exception and one in which the University was involved.
This isolation of related skills is evident in the field of lighting as well, according to Doctor Mackay — "the environmental lighting people don't get together with the vehicle ligh ting designers." There are roughly three times as many accidents on unlit motorways during the night than occur during the day. If the motorway is lit this ratio is reduced to 11/2.
"In the average vehicle on an unlit -motorway at night, if you
think you can drive safely at 70mph you're kidding yourself."
The modern car is really very good when it comes to handling, road-holding and braking compared with one 20 years ago. Does this make it a safer car? "Not necessarily", replied Doctor Mackay. "The driver will tend to use up this extra perfor mance and go round corners more quickly and leave his braking later, so it could be detrimental."
So what progress have we made in this country? "We're not bad. Our vehicle design is generally as good as most countries. I would say Sweden was leading the field," he told me.
"In commercial vehicles most progress has been made in the area of cab comfort, which is important from a safety point of view. A quieter, more comfortable cab is a better and safer working environment for the driver."
Murray Mackay is disappointed that seat-belt legislation making their use compulsory did not get through Parliament. "The argument about this infringing the freedom of the individual has been overstated. We must expect to make some small sacrifices. Driving is a privilege, not a God-given right," he said.
Driver education and training can also be improved. "But more can be done for both cars and commercial vehicles," said Doctor Mackay.
'Although the law of diminishing returns sets in and you start paying a lot of money for very little improvement, I think that time is' at least 10 years away. Whether or not the money will be spent on producing significantly safer vehicles, I don't know.
"The problem is that safety research is not so immediately cost-effective as other commercial expenditure. It doesn't, generate enough profit for the manufacturer:" Drive safely.