AN ANALYSIS OF IMPROVEMENTS TO VEHICLE SAFETY AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO RECENT DECLINES IN FATALITIES AND INJURY RATES11-0228

摘要

Recent vehicle safety technologies have saved lives, mitigated injuries, and, to some extent, reduced the occurrence of crashes. However there have been few, if any, studies that attempt to quantify how much safer a newer model year vehicle is than an older one, at least in any controlled fashion. This paper attempts such a quantification, and estimates the combined contribution of vehicle improvements to recent declines in fatalities and injury rates. Our analysis assesses the combined impact of safety improvements, and not the separate impacts of individual technologies.