Safety
Possibility of a crash
- Speed
- Nature of the road/rail line
- Power
- Speed Limit
- Maneuverability and Stability
- Vehicle size
- Weight distribution
- Traction
- Breaking system (eg. ABS) and other control systems
- Road/track condition and hazards
- Possible conflicts with other vehicles, pedestrians, other vulnerable road/track users, objects
- Nature of bends, intersections, surfaces, lighting
- Perceived safety/risk
- Vehicle size
- Complacency in trust of technology and engineering standards
- Nature of the road, lane widths
- Familiarity with the road
- Insurance systems to minimize financial loss in a crash
- Awareness
- Understanding the responsibilities of road users
- Understanding the existence and rights of other road users
- Knowledge of severity, frequency and costs of road crashes
- State of mind while operating vehicle – fatigued, under the influence of a substance, distracted
- Clarity of sensory perception
- Information Systems
Current practices to deal with the possibility of a crash include enforcement of speed and state of mind (no drink driving), licensing, road standards and audits, vehicle standards, advertising/awareness campaigns
Crash damage
- Material
- Cost of material damaged
- Systems to fix/use damaged material or vehicles
- Size of cars
- Welfare of people involved
- Protection devices
- Aggressivity (how much another car intrudes on what it impacts) of vehicles involved
- Weights of vehicles involved (both absolute and relative)
- Crashworthiness of cars (how well the car absorbs the impact without causing too much acceleration or other hazards for the passengers)
- Speed of impact
- Nature of impacts (front, off-set, side etc)
- Emergency response
- Availability of medical aid
- Disruption to transportation network
- Ability for the diminished capacity to cope with demand
- Ability for an efficient response and for the network to return to normal capacity
Current practices to deal with crash damage are vehicle standards, regulation of protection devices, emergency response systems such as ambulance, an established network of crash repair centres, speed limit enforcements