BEV BUTULA: Where to find automotive and highway safety statistics

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute are organizations that provide a wide range of information on automobile safety. Many people are familiar with the Institute’s Top Safety Picks, which tests and rates vehicles on their crashworthiness. The website includes the results for various makes and models of vehicles, and includes explanations on the different tests conducted.

The website’s “research and statistics” tab provides the researcher with data on numerous topics including airbags, cell phones, head restraints, antilock brakes, older drivers, rollover and roof strength, urban crashes, teens, and safety belt use. This data ranges from videos to bibliographies to advisories. Access to current and archived editions of Status Report (the Institute’s newsletter) is also available from the website.

The “law and regs” tab is basically an interactive 50 state survey of highway safety laws. A news feed is also available to monitor changes/updates in state laws. The Institute also includes copies of Amicus briefs it has filed in court cases and testimony given at various hearings.