Traffic Engineering and Vehicle Safety
Led by Associate Professor David Logan, the Traffic Engineering and Vehicle Safety team’s engineering background provides a unique lens when researching the cornerstones of road safety: safe vehicles, safe roads, and safe roadsides. Expertise includes road safety strategy modelling and development, road safety infrastructure, and light and heavy vehicle safety, including automated vehicles.
The team translates research into practice and collaborates extensively with government and industry partners. Contributing to key road safety strategies in Australia, the team's work builds upon the Safe System and Vision Zero road safety philosophies.
Major projects
The team delivered several high-impact projects in 2025, most notably an ongoing partnership with the TAC Road Safety team to conduct 16 additional in-depth fatal crash investigations. As part of the Safe System Crash Investigation Program pilot, a total of 20 cases were presented to panels comprising Victorian road safety stakeholders and local government representatives. These sessions successfully increased awareness of how to apply and uphold the Safe System approach to fatal crashes involving all road user types on local government-administered roads in Victoria.
Internationally, the team continues to support Anglo American’s procurement of safer light vehicles across operations in Africa and South America - regions where safety standards can be difficult to meet - helping protect workers and raise awareness of safer vehicle technologies. During 2025, a comprehensive list of light vehicle safety ratings was developed, including a selection of five-star vehicles to help guide the purchase and use of the safest vehicles in the global fleet.
Team milestones
Dr Iniya Arularasu completed her PhD in autonomous vehicles, after which she has continued to work with MUARC as part of the Traffic Engineering and Vehicle Safety team.
Impact
The team is a frequent collaborator with other MUARC research teams, sharing their engineering expertise to a diverse range of safety and injury prevention projects, and with Monash University colleagues. A standout collaboration with MUARC’s Emergency Services Research team investigated risks to rural fire fighting vehicles from falling trees and limbs in NSW, resulting in the development of a tailored vehicle rollover and falling object performance testing program. The team helped design the test protocols and supervised the testing of vehicles.
Funding partners
Their work was supported by diverse funding sources, including TAC, Anglo American, ACIL Allen, and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts of Australia.
The Traffic Engineering and Vehicle Safety team draws on research expertise in civil, mechanical and transport engineering to conduct world-class research working towards the elimination of death and serious injury on Australian roads through the provision of robust, evidence-based findings and implementation-focused research.