EUROPEAN UNION

1

EUROPEAN UNION
Ageing Europe Implications for EU Policy Vehicle
Safety Adrian Hobbs/ Murray Mackay
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The Ageing Road User

• Living longer
• More mobile
• Greater wealth
• Downsizing to smaller cars

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Vulnerability to Injury

• Reduced bone strength
• Osteoporosis
• Female from 45 - 50 years
• Male from 55 - 60 years
• Main bones affected
• Ribs
• Upper and Lower Limbs

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Vulnerability to Injury

• Less flexible spine
• Inter-vertebral disc degeneration
• Increased susceptibility to injury
• Also
• Reduced movement

5
Vision Perception

• Reduced visual acuity
• Particularly at dusk
• Perception errors
• Looked but didnt see
• Particularly two-wheelers

6
Recovery from Injury

• Slow recovery
• Risk of complications

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External Influences

• Downsizing to smaller cars
• Higher seat belt forces
• Use of thicker clothing
• Seat belt slack
• Travelling in the rear seat
• Poor seat belt geometry
• Lack of pretensioners
• Lack of load limiters
• Absence of airbags

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Injury Risk

• Three times more likely to die in frontal or side
  impact
• 286 increase in aged fatalities predicted

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Implications for Vehicle Design

• Safer car fronts
• Older pedestrian casualties - 50 of pedestrian
  deaths in OECD countries
• On arterial roads
• Unsuitable for pedestrianisation
• Unsuitable for traffic calming

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Implications for Vehicle Design

• EU Directive on safer car fronts
• High level of protection required by the EU
  Treaty
• Needs to implement with certainty the
  state-of-the-art EEVC crash tests, used by
  EuroNCAP since 1996
• EU Savings up to 2000 lives for additional costs
  at design stage _at_ 30 euros per car

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Implications for Vehicle Design

• Improved compatibility
• Good early structural interaction
• Improved deceleration pulse Shape
• Improved protection in small cars

12
Implications for Vehicle Design

• Day running lights
• Visibility of two-wheelers to aid perception