Australia’s peak motoring body, the Australian Automobile Association, has called for uniform vehicle safety standards across Australia in light of a Victorian report calling for greater government involvement to improve vehicle safety.

The Australian Automobile Association and constituent motoring organisations believe there should be national standards for all Australian vehicles and called on the Federal Government to take a leading role in developing those standards.

The call for improved vehicle safety standards was made in a Victorian Parliamentary Road Safety Committee report released recently.

AAA Executive Director, Mike Harris, says the report proposed a number of recommendations around safer design and regulation, and they would urge the Commonwealth to be involved rather than leaving it to individual states and territories to introduce their own safety standards.

The AAA says issues as important as safer vehicles, with the potential to save thousands of lives and dramatically reduce road trauma, costing the Australian economy some $17 billion a year, should not be left to the states to introduce their own standards.

Harris says that this would require a uniform national approach rather than allowing disparate rules and regulations to be introduced across differing jurisdictions.

“For example, technology-based safety systems such as Intelligent Speed Assist, which rely upon electronic maps and transponders, need to be compatible across all states, so that motorists continue to receive the safety benefits when they drive across borders.”

Harris called on the Federal Government to not only ensure consistent standards, but also to use its leverage as a massive fleet vehicle purchaser to force improvements to road safety.

“Governments at the local, state and federal levels can certainly use their purchasing power to ensure important safety features are included as standard,” says Harris.

RACV has also urged federal and state governments to consider the Victorian Road Safety Committee’s recommendations on car safety as a matter of urgency.

RACV’s Chief Engineer Vehicles, Michael Case says the Committee has taken on board many of the suggestions outlined in the RACV submission to the inquiry and are pleased that there are a number of recommendations in regard to the implementation of safety technologies.

These areas included the review and expansion of the Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au website to promote technologies such as pre-emptive brake assist, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, pedestrian protection and active head restraints.

Another recommendation was that VicRoads and the TAC provide funding over the next five years to implement the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) Stars-on-Cars in Victoria.

This program is being introduced into Australia and New Zealand by ANCAP, following its mandatory introduction in the United States, in concert with vehicle manufacturers and distributors to have Stars on Cars labels on 4 and 5-star cars.

Case says the recommendation that all new government cars purchased or leased, from 2010, have a five-star ANCAP crash rating was supported by RACV, as well as the interim measure that all new vehicles purchased be fitted with all available safety options.