Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Int. J. Vehicle Safety, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2012 9 Innovative automotive design for improving safety standards Ambarish Kulkarni* and Ajay Kapoor Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Science, Swinburne University of Technology, H38, John St Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia Fax: +61 3 9214 8264 E-mail: ambarishkulkarni@swin.edu.au E-mail: akapoor@swin.edu.au Website: www.swin.edu.au *Corresponding author Mahalinga Iyer and Vladis Kosse School of Engineering Systems, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus 2 George Street, GPO Box 2434 Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia Fax: +61 7 3138 1469 E-mail: m.iyer@qut.edu.au E-mail: v.kosse@qut.edu.au Website: www.qut.edu.au Abstract: Car carriers are a type of semitrailer which exhibit Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) concerns due to falls from height during operations. This paper outlines research carried out on the car carrier sector to prevent hazard due to falls. A new design addresses OHS concerns of falls from height. Injuries are often caused by drivers working above 1.5 m height for loading- unloading of cars, moving decks up and down and strapping cars in. The new car carrier design excels in reducing the risk of injuries to drivers and represents a new bench mark for OHS standards in the heavy vehicle sector. The next step would be to transfer this technology to other similarly affected heavy vehicle sectors. Keywords: safety; semitrailer; car carrier; automotive; OHS; occupational health and safety; fall from heights; product design; injuries. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Kulkarni, A., Kapoor, A., Iyer, M. and Kosse, V. (2012) ‘Innovative automotive design for improving safety standards’, Int. J. Vehicle Safety, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.9–27. Biographical notes: Ambarish Kulkarni is Research Associate at the Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Science, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, Australia. He is currently finishing his doctorate on development of Electric Vehicle (EV). Drivetrain technology using Switch Reluctance (SR) motor, which is fundedby Commonwealth Automotive Research Council (AutoCRC) visionary project. He has worked on development of many novel automotive projects such asGM Holden Camaro, Toll logistics car carrier and development of Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) electric car. He is also member of