Sam Doecke

University of Adelaide · Centre for Automotive Safety Research

While there is a large quantity of prior research on speed and road safety, no previous studies have quantified the absolute risk of serious injury in a crash relative to travel speed. This study aimed to produce risk curves that relate travel speed to the risk of serious injury in light vehicle impacts in order to contribute to the process of sele...

The current guiding philosophies in road safety have stated aims of zero deaths and serious injuries. Speed has previously been highlighted as a key factor in the outcome of a crash but the literature to date has yet to provide a robust relationship between impact speed and the risk of serious injury for crashes other than pedestrian crashes. This...

The Centre for Automotive Safety Research conducts at-scene in-depth investigations of South Australian injury crashes that allow detailed analysis of the crash in order to determine the factors that contributed to the crash occurring, and the interventions that could prevent or mitigate them. This initial analysis of such a dataset (n=116) showed...

The prevalence of speeding in crashes is only currently reported for fatal crashes in the United States of America (USA) using police reports, and the prevalence reported (27%) is well below that found in a national study that measured travel speeds (65%). The aim of this study was to explore how EDR data from the National Automotive Sampling Syste...

The speed at which drivers travel has been shown to have a considerable effect on the number and severity of crashes. Previous studies have examined speed choice of drivers outside of a crash situation, and found speed is influenced by a number of factors and circumstances. The aim of this study was to investigate factors influencing speed choice f...

Objective To provide empirical evidence for ‘safe’ speed limits that will meet the objectives of the Safe System by examining the relationship between speed limit and injury severity for different crash types, using police-reported crash data. Method Police reported crashes from two Australian jurisdictions were used to calculate a fatal crash rate...

Quad bikes are a leading cause of death and serious injury on Australian farms. This study provides important insights regarding quad bike use and the circumstances surrounding incidents that occur as a result of their use. It also identifies high risk uses and examines the severity and type of injury sustained by quad bike riders. This was achieve...

This article estimates the safety potential of a current commercially available connected vehicle technology in real-world crashes. Data from the Centre for Automotive Safety Research's at-scene in-depth crash investigations in South Australia were used to simulate the circumstances of real-world crashes. A total of 89 crashes were selected for inc...

This report describes the path of vehicles following a collision with another vehicle at a rural intersection. Detailed information from in-depth investigations of 70 intersection crashes was analysed. Rear end crashes at intersections were excluded as were collisions involving a motorcycle. The vehicle which had right of way most commonly had an i...

Main points • The simulation study detailed in this report predicts significant crash reductions with the introduction of forward collision avoidance technology (FCAT) systems. • Between 20 and 40 per cent of all fatal crashes and between 30 and 50 per cent of all injury crashes might be prevented with FCAT systems (note that these figures do not...

To describe the determinants of the severity of the head kinematics of a pedestrian when struck by common sport utility vehicles (SUV) and work utility vehicles (WUVs) to assess how effective assessment protocols are in assessing injury risk for SUVs and work utilities. Three hundred twenty-four simulations of pedestrian collisions with SUVs, work...