Model crash statistics

semi

Anyone know where I can get statistics on which car types (make, model, spec) are involved in serious accidents (weighted to take account of how many are on the roads) broken down by statistics about the driver (age, sex etc..). Seems to me if we were serious about road safety, this information would be freely available to the public... I understand the 'vested interests' at play that would have an interest in keeping this info outside the public domain, but don't you think we should know? Apols. if this has been posted before... did a quick search and didn't find anything....

peasant

Driver X was killed when his/her vehicle was in collision with a wall.

I'm afraid, that seems to be the total extent of irish crash investigations and statistics.
Is there even such a thing as a crash investigation unit? I'm yet to see even chalk marks at the scene of an accident ...

colm_mcm

Do you not think that most of the reason people crash is down to driver error?

The car is rarely the deciding factor. Fair enough certain types of driver who drive a certain style of car may crash more, but this is more a reflection on their driving and choice of car, than a fault with the car itself.

Mayshine

colm_mcm wrote:

Do you not think that most of the reason people crash is down to driver error?

Of course, but some cars are safer than others. Hit a tree at 100kph in a starlet compared to a Volvo and I would wager that the volvo driver has a far better chance of living.


If proper records were collected we would have stats like how many fatal car crashes had an airbag deployed and other such useful statistic etc as well as vehicle by vehicle statistics. Armed with these any sensible government that cared for its citizens would offer incentives to its population to drive cars with more safety features, especially the most vunerable ones, e.g drivers with less cash and less experience. They would identify crash hot spots and immediatly rectify them. They would change their driving education system to include the type of driving that accidents occured to make the driving population more aware of their actions and discourage bad habits.

The fact is if this government is unable to establish a body that cannot even do a simple task such as record appropriate and complete accident stats, then we don't have much of a hope for the rest.

See you could call it driver error or you could put it down to poorly educated drivers let down by an inadequate driver education and testing system. Wuld you blame a leaving cert student for failing a subject if they were only tought a small proportion of the sylabus before sitting there exam. That how I feel for a lot of drivers in this country.

Sorry for the slightly of topic ramlings

colm_mcm

Euro NCAP tests show how new cars behave in a colission, and give a good indicator as to the general safety of a car.

BrianD3

It's not what the OP was asking for but the Folksam group in Sweden publish stats on car safety based on real life collisions.
http://www.folksam.se/engelsk/index.htm

These stats are somewhat useful and give a general idea of car safety. But they are influenced by factors other than how safe the car is. eg certain demographics that tend to have less severe crashes may tend to buy certain makes of cars. Also there are things in the report that don't make much sense eg newer models with poorer safety ratings than older models from the same manufacturer. From looking at the report the Peugeot 306 and 309 are examples of this. The 309 is rated average, the 306 is rated >15% lower safety than average. This makes no sense!

semi

colm_mcm wrote:

Euro NCAP tests show how new cars behave in a colission, and give a good indicator as to the general safety of a car.

They do of course, but still I think actual statistics would be very illuminating. I'd say insurance companies have them - and probably the Gardai. It'd be interesting to compare stats. from different countries too to see if we have higher rates of accidents (pro rata) for different cars. For example, does the fact that a lot of people buy 1.4 small family hatchbacks due to tax /cost here have an impact on the type of accidents they have compared to other countries where, say, a 1.6 or above might be more the norm for this size of car?

I reckon it'd be very illuminating, coming up to election time, if the statistics showed that our high tax regime was a contributing factor in serious/fatal accidents... Put it another way, does the entry level Audi A3 without standard ESP have more accidents here than the same model in Britain where it is standard? (Is this still the case?) After all, it was Bertie, as minister for finance, who brought in VRT in the first place...

Of course there are lots of other factors - surely much bigger ones - in accidents - driver error, poor roads, poor training and behaviour - the usual suspects - I accept that completely.

I'm just wondering whether my question is a factor at all, and if so, by how much? I believe the numbers are there somewhere, we should be told!

maidhc

Statistics can prove anything you want them to prove.

I suggest banning officialdom from hiding behind statistics, reports and consultations, not introduce another layer of them.

I can just see Martin Cullen coming with with a proposal to ban VTEC Civics as a solution to road deaths.

BrianD3

Just to pick up on something even though I know it was probably only used as a throwaway example

Of course, but some cars are safer than others. Hit a tree at 100kph in a starlet compared to a Volvo and I would wager that the volvo driver has a far better chance of living.

100 km/h into a tree and the chances of survival are virtually nil no matter what car you're in. You might be OK if you hit the tree a glancing blow or spun into it backwards. But for most crashes you'd probably be dead. 100 is *significantly* above the EuroNCAP test speed and a tree is a much more aggressive object to hit than the barrier used in the EuroNCAP head on test. Even trees which look small and weak can slice through any car like it's made of tinfoil.

colm_mcm

If people drove within their abilities......

Supercell

Interesting topic, so what car has the highest NCAP and lowest fatal crash victims ?

colm_mcm

I'm guessing a BMW X5 or a Volvo XC90

Santa Claus

semi wrote:

Anyone know where I can get statistics on which car types (make, model, spec) are involved in serious accidents (weighted to take account of how many are on the roads) broken down by statistics about the driver (age, sex etc..).

For details of which models crash most frequently, try contacting a few salvage yards and ask them which cars come into them most often (You'd probably stand a better chance of getting this info if you call directly to the yard rather than ringing them).

The Irish Insurance Federation publish statistics on claims by age/sex breakdown but somne would say that their statistics are "tailored" to justify the massive loading on young males policies here.

Also, the garda press office might be able to help you (more that they might point you to some government department like the dept of environment who might keep records of what cars are scrapped).

As for the weighting, you'd have to do this research yourself by getting figures for number of each make of car sold in Ireland for the year(s) in question.

I seem to remember there was a kid who did this in the Young scientists exhibition a few years ago (dunno how you'd go about tracing that though)