The Global Technical Regulation on pedestrian safety: Likely effects on vehicle design

In the future, the Global Technical Regulation (GTR) on pedestrian safety may be adopted as an Australian Design Rule. Eventually, this would require all new vehicles to meet a certain level of performance in pedestrian impact tests. This paper discusses the likely effects of such an ADR on vehicle design, and estimates the effect of the requirements on real world crash performance. This is done by analysing vehicles whose GTR performance could be estimated from prior testing conducted by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP). The resulting performance estimates give an indication of what proportion of vehicles would be likely to pass the GTR, and what characteristics might cause them to fail the requirements. A method is presented for relating headform test requirements to real world performance, taking into account the distribution of speeds in real crashes. The results show that compulsory compliance with the GTR would improve the current situation, but ideally the requirements of the GTR would become stricter in the future.