Chapter 1 Victoria's Vehicle Roadworthiness System

1.1 Introduction

Vehicle crashes in 1999 resulted in 383 fatalities and 18,775 injury collisions. There were 41,726 crashes reported to Victoria Police.¹The number of vehicles registered in Victoria at 1 September 2000 was 3,862,630.²One of the purposes of this inquiry is to investigate the extent of the link between unroadworthy or defective vehicles and crashes, and to then consider whether an unroadworthy vehicle would have more crashes than a vehicle with no defects.

The definition of 'roadworthy' and 'roadworthiness' used in the inquiry is:

'A roadworthy vehicle has all safety-related components maintained in a manner that makes it safe to drive on the road.' This definition was formed from the following descriptions and objectives:

... to ensure that when vehicles are used on highways they are safe for use and are used in a safe manner. (Section 101(b) of the Road Safety (Vehicles) Regulations 1999)

The roadworthiness inspection is a basic safety check of the vehicle, to ensure that all safety related factors or components have not deteriorated to the extent that the vehicle is rendered unfit for normal road use.³(VicRoads 1999)

... one in which there exist no safety related defects at a particular time. The [Royal Automobile Club of Queensland] Submission to the Travelsafe Committee (1990) regards 'roadworthiness', as measured by the acquisition of a roadworthiness certificate, as an indication that the vehicle is safe to drive at the time that it was inspected. ⁴(Accident Research Centre, Monash University [MUARC]).

The Committee considered whether an unroadworthy vehicle would have more crashes than a vehicle with no defects. They also considered to what extent factors such as driver age, alcohol, drugs and weather conditions have on the crash.

It became clear from the submissions and during the inquiry that there is both a paucity of information and lack of common reporting structures. Some of the information that has been put before the Committee was prepared solely for the inquiry rather than drawn from a statistical database. Interpretation of these statistics has often proven difficult due to the small sample size.

The Committee has noted differing views among the key motoring bodies and government instrumentalities as to the depth of the problem.

The extent to which vehicle roadworthiness was considered the primary factor or a contributing factor in a crash was dependent on how the available data, if any, was interpreted and used by the various organisations and groups making submissions to the inquiry.

1.1.1 Defining defects

Defects are defined under three criteria:

1) Cause: A mechanical fault was the direct cause of the collision.

2) Contribute: A mechanical fault was a contributing factor to the collision.

3) Possibly contribute: A mechanical fault was found that may have contributed to the collision.

1.1.2 Interpreting the effect of defects in crashes

The difficulty in interpreting defects in crashes is described in VicRoads' submission as follows:

Crash investigation is complex, involves judgements and assumptions and is influenced by the expertise of the investigators.

With such a complex set of factors influencing their interaction, local and international research has understandably provided varying estimates of the link between vehicle defects and crashes.

There are difficulties in establishing that a defect, even a critical defect, caused or contributed to a crash.⁵

Another perspective is provided by the State Coroner's conclusion to an inquest involving a single vehicle collision in 1998:

A small number of the single vehicle cases have identified mechanical or tyre problems as possible factors. If these factors are significant then it may mean that mechanical and servicing problems are of greater potential as causative factors in collisions than otherwise thought.⁶

Little research has been conducted in Australia on the issue of vehicle defects and crashes. Papers that have been published overseas on how the incidence of vehicle defects affects crashes are very beneficial, but are dated and do not reflect Australian conditions.