Citation

Rattenbury S, Gloyns P. Traffic Eng. Control 1992; 33(10): 540-544.

Affiliation

Vehicle Safety Consultants Ltd.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Hemming Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Single-vehicle accidents account for about one-quarter of all fatal accidents in rural areas. Trees and 'other permanent objects' are the most frequent items struck. In the long term, attention to manmade structures in particular could reduce the number of car occupant fatalities by up to 5 per cent. For example, roadside fencing has not been identified as an aggressive structure before, but in fact causes about 1.5 per cent of all car occupant fatalities. Roadside engineering measures are likely to be more effective than vehicle design changes in this type of accident because of the unpredictable, highly-localised loading on the car's structure, and a high risk of fatal head injury caused by intruding objects or structure.