We're seeking your feedback on proposed amendments to vehicle requirements relating to dynamic side impact collisions to improve occupant and first responder safety.
Why we want your input
Vehicle safety affects all Australians. We want your input to help increase vehicle safety and reduce the number of road fatalities or serious injuries to vehicle occupants in side collisions.How you can voice your opinion
Read the proposed explanatory statement and Australian Design Rule (ADR) 72/01, then provide your submission by 17 November 2023 below. To provide more detailed feedback, please complete and attach the consultation feedback form below to your submission.What will be the outcome of this consultation?
Your submission will help inform future standards on dynamic side impact crash test requirements for light vehicles.The Issue
With the number of battery electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles on the rise in Australia, there is an increasing risk of high voltage electrical shock, fire, explosion and chemical leakage from the battery system after a side impact crash. There is also increased risk to first responders attending crash scenes involving electric and hybrid vehicles.
ADR 72–Dynamic Side Impact Occupant Protection specifies crash worthiness requirements intended to reduce the likelihood of injury to vehicle occupants in a side impact crash. The current version of ADR 72 does not consider the potential of vehicles with high voltage battery systems to be damaged in a side impact crash and cause electrocutions, fires and chemical burns.
The proposed amendments will realign the requirements in ADR 72 with internationally harmonised United Nations Regulation 95 and require all applicable vehicles fitted with electric drivetrains to be assessed against additional criteria related to the prevention of electrocutions, fires and chemical spills from those systems after a side impact crash.
We are seeking feedback on the proposal including:
- whether you support the proposed version of ADR 72/01.
If you don't support the proposed version, we are interested in your comments on what could be changed to make it more suitable including changes to:
- functional and/or performance requirements
- testing requirements
- implementation timing and affected vehicle categories.
If you don't support amending the proposal, please provide reasons why we shouldn't regulate these aspects of electric vehicles.
Relevant documentation
Participate
22 Sep 2023 07:00 AEST
17 Nov 2023 23:59 AEDT
Closed
We invite you to to tell us your views on this topic.
Please include:
- contact name
- organisation name, if applicable
- contact details, including telephone number, postal and email addresses
- confirmation whether or not your submission can be made public—published—or kept confidential.
All submissions to be made public need to meet the Digital Service Standard for accessibility. Any submission that does not meet this standard may be modified before being made public.
Please click on the 'Have your say now' button below to upload your submission.
This consultation is closed.
Alternatively, please email your completed template submission to the standards@infrastructure.gov.au or send it to:
Director
Vehicle Standards
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
GPO Box 2154
Canberra ACT 2601
Australian Privacy Principle 5 Notice
Occupant's safety in a vehicle side impact collision
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (the department) is collecting information for the purposes of public consultation on the proposal of updating ADR 72–Dynamic Side Impact Occupant Protection for light vehicles and vehicle categories MA, MB, MC and NA safety requirements in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.
The department will use this information to inform consideration of issues associated with the national safety standards for dynamic side impact occupant protection and will store this information securely. It may be used by the department to make further contact with you about the review.
The department will not disclose information to third parties, except in the circumstances outlined below.
Submissions, in part or full, including the name of the author may be published on the department's website unless the submission is confidential. Confidential submissions (including the author's name) will not be published. Private addresses and contact details will not be published or disclosed to any third parties unless required by law.
Submissions will only be treated as confidential if they are expressly stated to be confidential. Automatically generated confidentiality statements or disclaimers appended to an email do not suffice for this purpose. If you wish you make a confidential submission, you should indicate this by ensuring your submission is marked confidential.
Confidential submissions will be kept securely and will only be disclosed in the following circumstances:
- in response to a request by a Commonwealth Minister
- where required by a House or a Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia
- where required by law.
The department may also disclose confidential submissions within the Commonwealth of Australia, including with other Commonwealth agencies, where necessary in the public interest.
Please note that in order to protect the personal privacy of individuals in accordance with the Privacy Act any submissions containing sensitive information, personal information or information which may reasonably be used to identify a person or group of people may not be published, even if not marked as confidential.
The department's privacy policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access and/or seek correction of personal information held by the department. The Privacy Officer can be contacted on 02 6274 6495 or by email: privacy@infrastructure.gov.au