An article by Dr George Rechnitzer has been featured in the November 2008 issue of WorkWISE, a publication dedicated to work-related death prevention:

We see in many investigations and Coronial Investigations in particular, the contribution of design inadequacies [in combination with human behaviour] resulting in fatal and serious injury outcomes. While such investigations and research identify areas for design improvements, it is amazing the resistance that is often met for practical, well understood interventions.

The full newsletter may be downloaded from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

DVE is proud to announce that Dr George Rechnitzer has been appointed Chair of the National Technical Panel at the Safety Institute of Australia. From Gary Lawson-Smith (CEO SIA):

“On behalf of Barry Silburn CFSIA, National President and Dr Geoff Dell CFSIA, Dean College of Fellows, it gives me great pleasure to announce that Dr George Rechnitzer FSIA has kindly agreed to replace me in the role of Chair of the National Technical Panel (NTP). George is a current member of the NTP and a professional engineer. He is also a founding partner, Director and Principal Forensic Engineer, DVExperts."

We congratulate George on his appointment and look forward to working closely with the SIA to improve all aspects of safety in Australia.

DVExperts International is proud to announce that it has received the Bronze Award at the 2008 Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia (SAE-A) Automotive Engineering Excellence Awards 2008! DVExperts submitted its High Performance Rollover Protection Systems to the awards following their successful rollout in Africa, South America, the Middle East and the USA. DVE sincerely thanks the Society of Automotive Engineers, the RACV and all of is clients for making this award a possibility.

Congratulations to the DVExperts team for all its hard work and dedication to this project, and to the advancement of rollover safety worldwide.

Shane Richardson and Dr George Rechnitzer with the SAE-A Award for Excellence

Richmond AFL footballer Graham Polak was struck and seriously injured by a tram on the night of 28 June 2008. This unfortunate incident once again reminds us how little is done [but could be done] with the design of the front of our trams and buses to reduce severe and fatal injury risk to pedestrians.

Trams, Trains and even buses are unable to move around pedestrians or other vehicles. They also have stiff, hard front structures which can and do inflict serious head and other injuries even at low speeds.

We could easily add energy absorbing surfaces to both the front of trams and buses to makes these structures ‘crashworthy’ for pedestrians but for some unknown reason this is not happening. Such a recommendation was made in a Monash University Accident Research Centre Report for VicRoads in 1993. When will our public transport authorities actually implement known, practical safety solutions to reduce the horrible consequences of brain injury? It is about time.

Rechnitzer G. (1993) “Truck Involved Crash Study: Fatal and injury crashes of cars and other road users with the front and side of heavy vehicles”, Monash University Accident Research Centre, Melbourne, Report 35. [http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc035.html]

One year on from the Kerang train disaster, Dr George Rechnitzer has been interviewed by the Herald sun on the state of train safety:

Crashworthiness expert and forensic engineer Dr George Rechnitzer, who provided a report to a NSW inquiry into a train crash that killed seven people, said the Victorian Government was failing train passengers.

"If they don't properly address the crashworthiness, if they only talk about meeting industry best practice . . . that's woefully inadequate," he said.

"The reviews have to ask, 'Are we trying to save lives?'

"If we'd just stuck with industry best practice when we were improving car safety, we would have got nowhere in reducing the road toll."

Dr Rechnitzer, a principal at safety company DVExperts, said the sides of the N-class train struck by a truck at Kerang were not crashworthy.

The full article may be found here.