Vehicle Safety Research Centre, Loughborough University, UK

The Vehicle Safety Research Centre (VSRC) – UNITED KINGDOM

The Vehicle Safety Research Centre (VSRC) lies within Loughborough University, UK. The VSRC was established in 1983 and currently has a staff of 30 experts in the field of real world accident investigation. It is an independent research and consultancy centre producing information and recommendations to the government, the EC and industry. An objective data-driven approach, based on in-depth investigations of numerous real life crashes, provides fundamental information for legislators and road-user safety strategy engineers. Specifically, the VSRC has undertaken research over the past 20 years on behalf of the UK Government and a consortium of motor manufacturers. One study, the Co-operative Crash Injury Study, has involved the examination of some 20,000 car crashes involving approximately 25,000 vehicles and their occupants. Several other in-depth studies are being conducted for both Government and industry. The VSRC has used in-depth data to support research and legislation concerning frontal impact, side impact, leg injury mechanisms, dummy development, crash test procedures and was instrumental in the Fourth Framework STAIRS project. The VSRC also initiated a major new UK project into active safety, accident causation and road infrastructure design using “On the Spot” methods and has also commenced activity on a number of EC 5^th Framework Projects including PENDANT (as project coordinators), CHILD (as work-package leaders), RISER (as work-package leaders) ECBOS and ROLLOVER.