The used car safety ratings are based on a Monash University Accident Research Centre technical report of a project that analysed crash data for the period 1987-1998. The ratings are based on statistics collected on 615,238 serious crashes on NSW, Queensland and Victorian roads.
The NRMA and the RTA (NSW) prepared the NSW crash data and vehicle model details from vehicle registration records. Queensland Transport contributed to the merging of Queensland crash data. VicRoads contributed to the merging of Victorian crash data. The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria contributed to the derivation of the models of cars crashed in Victoria. The sources of crash and injury data were the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland Police Traffic Accident Reports and TAC (the Victorian Transport Accident Commission) Insurance's database.
The ratings are not a matter of how likely it is for a particular car model to be involved in a crash. Rather, the ratings are a measure of the likelihood of a driver being killed or seriously injured once a crash has occurred. The vehicle's handling, driveability, distance driven and the driver's behaviour have no influence on the results in the tables. The research data indicate you are more than five times as likely to be seriously injured or killed in the least protective cars as you are in the cars that ranked the safest.
