Anne Guillaume (LAB) : we are focused on the safety of future cars
Head of french LAB (Laboratoire d’Accidentologie, de Biomécanique et d’analyse du comportement humain), that stands for accident research, biomachanical and driver behaviour laboratory, Anne Guillaume explains how her team works to improve road safety. Can you please remind us what is the LAB ? It's a common structure to the french OEMs, created in 1969 when France was facing a very high rate of fatalities (more than 14 000 people killed on the roads). Renault and Peugeot joined their efforts to have a better undestanding of accidents and to develop new safety features. It's been successful, if you consider that fatalities came down to 3 268 in 2013, meanwhile road traffic was multiplied by three. Historically, you've been focused on secondary safety. Right ? Yes. We have developed our own database of detailed accidents, in order to determine the causes and the consequences for the occupants. 300 cases are studied each year. With the help of experts, that c...