Priorities for future vehicle safety regulation in Australasia

After acknowledging that road safety targets in Europe were unlikely to be met based on current strategic activities, in 2018 the EU developed a new Vehicle General Safety Regulation (VGSR) to replace the existing General Safety Regulation (EC) No 661/2009 and Pedestrian Safety Regulation (EC) No 78/2009. The new package was formally adopted in November 2019. The aim of the new VGSR was to accelerate the fitment of advanced safety features to all light and heavy vehicles in the EU to assist with meeting strategic road safety targets. Components of the package and proposed implementation timelines are given in the following diagram provided by the Commonwealth Government Office of Road Safety.

There have been calls in Australia and New Zealand to adopt the EU VGSR in order to accelerate improvement in vehicle safety and assist in providing greater strategic road safety benefits more generally. However, the crash population in Australia and New Zealand is different to that in the EU, as is the profile and current standards of the existing vehicle fleet. Consequently, it is uncertain as to whether implementing the EU VGSR in Australia and New Zealand will provide the same benefits as estimated in the EU studies, or which elements of the package will give the greatest road safety benefit.

To address this, the proposed project aims to assess the potential road safety benefits of adopting the EU VGSR as a whole, or just specific components, in Australia and New Zealand.