Continuing its efforts to help lower the number of traffic fatalities and injuries that occur each year on U.S. roads, Toyota has announced that it will build a new Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) at its technical facility in Ann Arbor, Mich. Initially, the Center will gear its efforts to reducing driver distractions and protecting “the most vulnerable traffic populations”: Children, teens and seniors, who together represent some 30 percent of all traffic deaths in the America.
“Toyota’s new safety research center will work with leading North American universities and other partners on safety projects that benefit the entire industry,” said Akio Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation. “Our investment will support collaborative research aiming to reduce driver distraction and increase the safety of vehicles, drivers, passengers and pedestrians.”
As a mark of that collaboration, Toyota also has announced it would commit $50 million to the effort during the next five years and named its three charter partners in the CSRC:
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will lead a multidisciplinary project to assess the possible benefits of advanced safety systems by leveraging its expertise in driver behavior, crash analysis and driver modeling.
Virginia Tech will be collaborating with Toyota on research into the effectiveness of an electronic coaching and monitoring system for newly licensed teenage drivers to help reduce unsafe driving behaviors.
With The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, Toyota is partnering in a pilot study to develop the country’s first publicly available national crash surveillance system focused on child vehicle occupants.
“Toyota has always tried to take a comprehensive approach to creating a safe, sustainable automotive society through advanced vehicle safety technology, intelligent transport systems and traffic safety education,” said Chuck Gulash, who will head up the CSRC for Toyota. “We have a long history of working closely with North American partners to achieve our safety objectives, and our new collaborative research initiative will build on this tradition. We intend to publish as much of the research as possible so that it is available to federal agencies, the industry and academia.”
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With minivans once again growing in popularity, there are a lot of new choices on the market today—but only one earned a place among the 2011 Top Safety Picks chosen by the 
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Building on recent efforts that have pushed down customer concerns about acceleration some 80 percent since April and have implemented recall solutions on 5 million vehicles, Toyota has now announced a wide range of further quality initiatives geared to further enhancing the company’s resurgent reputation as an industry leader.
