 
Increasing road safety, preventing injuries.
Research in road safety and injury control at the Centre for
Automotive Safety Research at the University of Adelaide contributes to the reduction of the human
and economic costs of road crashes. The Centre began life in 1973 as the Road Accident Research Unit
(RARU) with the planning and undertaking of an in-depth study of road accidents in the Adelaide metropolitan
area. From 1981 through 1998, the Unit's work was supported by a grant from the National
Health and Medical Research Council.
During that grant period RARU's research program was concentrated in two areas: the study of brain
injury mechanisms in fatally injured road users and the epidemiology of drink driving and alcohol related
crashes. Notably, an investigation of the influence of vehicle speed in fatal pedestrian accidents led
on to case control studies of the relationship between a driver's travelling speed and risk of involvement
in a casualty crash in both urban and rural areas.
RARU's analysis of the occurrence of brain injury in road crashes called into question the then prevailing
paradigm of brain injury mechanisms. This prompted the development of an experimental study of axonal
injury that, in turn, led to the Japan Automotive Research Institute initiating a formal collaborative
research agreement with RARU, and now the CASR, in the area of crash injury biomechanics.
Also a part of the Centre's legacy is that over 40 years ago the Centre's Director, Professor Jack
McLean, co-authored the first paper in the world to show that car design played a major role in pedestrian
protection, revealing that pedestrians are run under, not over, by the striking car.
Today CASR is researching improvements in vehicle design to further protect pedestrians from injury.
This work, in collaboration with an international committee and the automobile industry, involves at-scene
crash investigations, computer modelling of pedestrian-vehicle collisions and physical reconstruction
of the impacts between car and pedestrian. A stand-out facility is the CASR Impact Laboratory, the only
one of its type in Australia. Here, testing of the level of protection given to a pedestrian by new cars
is done as part of the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).
In investigating crashes at the scene, Centre researchers focus on the role of driver, vehicle, and
road and traffic engineering factors in crash and injury causation. The information collected at the
scene and elsewhere is reviewed with the State road authority with a view to making improvements in road
safety through changes in legislation and road infrastructure.
Through their understanding of what happens in road crashes researchers are well placed to interpret
mass accident data from Police reports in evaluating the effectiveness of various road safety measures.
Evaluations are often combined with specific studies such as the extent to which older drivers adjust
to their declining cognitive abilities with advancing age.
From studying child restraint usage to evaluating the effects of default 50km/h urban speed limits,
CASR is committed to reducing the terrible impact of road crashes.
For further information go to Centre for Automotive Safety
Research.
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