Transurban Road Safety Centre

Overview

The Transurban Road Safety Centre at NeuRA is Australia’s only research-dedicated crash test lab. The Road Safety Centre combines world-class research with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to provide a source of ongoing innovation in the area of road safety research.

The Transurban Road Safety Centre is part of Transurban’s three-year partnership with NeuRA and ongoing commitment to improving road safety.

What it does

The goal of the Road Safety Centre is to alleviate the significant impact of death and injury on our roads through research into road safety. The facility provides NeuRA researchers the opportunity to study a number of growing trends on Australian roads. These included aged driver and passenger safety, motorcyclist safety and motorcycle design and rear seat occupancy and restraint systems.

The Transurban Road Safety Centre accommodates a crash sled capable of reaching speeds up to 64 km/h. This enables the collection of data that reflects the severity of crashes that occur on the road.

Findings:

• Older driver safety compromised by seat cushions and pillows
• Researchers suggest a rethink of “banned” chest clips on child car restraints in Australia
• Research finds that children are three times more likely to die or be seriously injured in a car crash if their car seat has been used incorrectly
• Experts find that errors in child car seat use is putting children’s lives at risk