Announcement date
9 February 2024
Link to announcement
Federal Register of Legislation - Vehicle Standard (Australian Design Rule 99/01 – Lane Departure Warning Systems) 2024
Problem being addressed
Crashes caused by heavy vehicles leaving the lane and resulting in crashes costs the Australian community approximately $63 million annually, in addition to the associated emotional trauma inflicted on family and friends of those involved in these crashes.
Although heavy vehicles represent almost four per cent of all registered vehicles in Australia and account for just under nine per cent of total vehicle kilometres travelled on public roads, they are involved in almost 16 per cent of all fatal crashes. The impact of road crashes on society and individuals is significant. Individuals injured in crashes must deal with pain and suffering, medical costs, lost income, higher insurance premium rates and vehicle repair costs. For society as a whole, road crashes result in enormous costs in terms of lost productivity and property damage. This cost is broadly borne by the general public, businesses and government.
Proposal
The Impact Analysis (IA) considers the introduction of a new national road vehicle standard requiring new safety technology – Lane Departure Warning Systems (LDWS).
The IA considers the following options:
- Option 1: considers Business as Usual (BAU) where no intervention is made and relies on either the market to address the problem or the community accepting the problem, or combination of the two. The state of current voluntary fitment of LDWS to all new heavy vehicles is around 36 per cent with heavy duty prime movers having the highest fitment rate of around 51.7 per cent.
- Option 2: regulatory intervention mandating the fitment of LDWS to all new heavy vehicles greater than 3.5 tonnes Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) and all omnibuses via a new national standard under the Road Vehicle Standards Act 2018. This new standard would adopt the technical requirements of UN Regulation No. 130, incorporating up to the latest series of amendments.
Under Option 2, the new standard would only apply to new vehicles, implementation of this option would not affect vehicles already in service. The proposed applicability dates under option 2 are:
- 1 November 2024 for new model vehicles where any new model that has not been introduced to the Australian market prior to November 2024 would have to fit a LDWS
- 1 November 2027 for all new vehicles where any existing models already being supplied to the Australian market prior to November 2024 would not have to fit a LDWS until November 2027 when all models are required to fit LDWSs.
Option 2 has the highest likely net benefit ($4.7 million) and is the recommended option. This option is estimated to generate the highest number of lives saved (62) and serious (1,725) and minor (5,370) injuries avoided.
Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Good practice
Assessment comments
The IA addresses the seven IA questions and follows an appropriate policy development process commensurate with the significance of the problem and magnitude of the proposed intervention.
Regulatory burden
DITRDCA estimates the average annual regulatory costs under the RBM of Adopting ADRs for Lane Departure Warning Systems for Heavy Vehicles is estimated to be $18.2 million.