Background

Paper Number 15-0144 Around 12 to 14 people are killed and 1400 injured annually in Australia resulting from Quad bike (All- Terrain Vehicle-ATV) and Side by Side Vehicle (SSV) incidents. The Australian Terrain Vehicle Assessment Program (ATVAP) consumer safety star rating system has been developed on the basis of a series of tests assessing a vehicle’s static stability, dynamic handling and rollover crashworthiness and is being proposed as a method to reduce these serious and fatal injuries mainly resulting from Quad bike rollovers. The ATVAP objective is to introduce a robust, test based rating system, in order to provide consumer based incentives for informed, safer and appropriate vehicle purchase, highlighting ‘Fit For Purpose ’ criteria, with corresponding incentives and competition amongst the Quad-bike and SSV industry for improved designs and models. This paper presents an overview of the testing basis on which the proposed rating system was developed