The UNSW Safety Car is an instrumented vehicle that will greatly enhance road safety research in NSW.

It collects data that shows how driver behaviour, including fatigue, in real world conditions influences potential injury risk.

Subaru's Liberty wagon was chosen due to its extensive list of standard safety equipment including: five-star ANCAP rating, Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, six airbags, Electronic Throttle Control, VDC stability control, onboard computer system, and ABS brakes.

Its cargo capacity and driving dynamics also make it an ideal vehicle for on-road safety research.

Designed to undertake several studies, across multiple faculties over a five-year period, the vehicle has been fitted with the following equipment:

"Australia's road toll is the lowest it has been since 1950 and NSW has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," says UNSW Dean of Science, Professor Mike Archer.

"But interventions such as better vehicle design, random breath testing and compulsory seat belt wearing mean that all the low-hanging fruit have been picked. Achieving significant new reductions in road trauma will require multidisciplinary teams of experts using sophisticated tools such as the Subaru instrumented vehicle in a real world environment.

"Subaru Australia's foresight and commitment means that we can put together experts in engineering, psychology and epidemiology to solve complex road safety problems, such as fatigue-related road crashes, that still account for one in five road deaths."

Derek Ashby, National Manager – Customer and Technical Services, Subaru Australia said: "Subaru has a long term commitment to safety. We were the first mainstream brand in Australia to achieve five-star ANCAP safety ratings across our range and one of only a few that offers lifesaving VDC stability control as standard equipment on all models.

"We're thrilled to support a project that will produce valuable real world data, which will hopefully filter through to future vehicle safety technologies."

The program is being undertaken by UNSW in conjunction with several road safety authorities and collaborators including the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, Motor Accidents Authority, Western Australia's Office of Road Safety, Monash University's Department of Civil Engineering and US Centre for Injury Research.