Safety systems and vehicle generations: Analysis of accident and travel data collected using event data recorders

The current paper proposes a data analysis method to evaluate the impact of vehicle-technology evolution on road safety based on a recent and extensive accident dataset (1.3 million vehicles in 2017 and 1.7 million in 2018, Italy). Seventeen models of vehicles equipped with an event data recorder were selected for acquiring data, including the distances travelled by the vehicles during the year, and were aggregated by their year of initial registration and model. This unique information in conjunction with the accident datasets enabled a consistent estimation of risk exposure and accident rates for various subsets of vehicles. Thereafter, the comparative analysis of accident rates revealed an improvement in the road safety along with a significant variation between various vehicle models that approximately ranged from 5-10 accidents per million kilometres. Moreover, the accident rate reduced after the electronic stability control system was mandated for vehicles in the market, exhibiting variations in the range of 15-30% for serious accidents that were dependent on the vehicle model. Further safety improvements were identified for the latest generation of vehicles equipped with more advanced technologies such as the autonomous emergency braking that can reduce the accident rate up to 38%.