Euro NCap To Overhaul Car Safety Ratings
New system will assess 'overall safety' of cars
The new system will take into account technological advancements such as electronic stability control, and for the first time cars will be rated on how well each vehicle protects adult occupants from whiplash. Until now cars have been rated on how well they protect passengers and pedestrians whilst being put through a crash simulator.
However it has become apparent to NCap that car companies have been targeting the adult occupation part of the test in order to attract customers with high scores. In the latest test four out of five cars achieved top marks in adult occupant protection, but just two - the Renault Koleos and the Hyundai i30 - scored as high as four out of five for child occupant protection. For pedestrian protection all but one of the cars on test were given two stars out of the possible four. The Mercedes ML Class off-roader received just one star.
A spokesman for Euro NCap said: ‘Euro NCap believes that consumers are interested in the safety offered to all occupants and also to other road users when they are choosing a new car; for this reason, Euro NCap is developing a new system that will reward the overall safety of the vehicle.’
Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCap’s secretary general, said he is glad that more and more cars are scoring top marks in the tests, but he believes the safety bar must continue to be raised. 'Our new rating system will do this,’ he added. 'I have no doubt that manufactures will step up to the challenge.'
The first results under the new system are expected to be released in February 2009.
t who gets in your way. Either that or a Challenger II tank...Prevention is always better than cure. The most effective way to stop pedestrians getting hurt when they're hit by cars is to stop them getting hit by cars.
Publicising the Green Cross Code would be a good starting point.
I take it they're going to design trains to to be 'car friendly' when drivers enter railroad crossings without looking? Oh no of course not, that's public transport and as such exempt from the raging safety and environment debate...
I wonder if they can gauge passive protection too, ie, Elk testing, or emergency stop testing, or stopping distances in the wet etc etc...
I'd rather a car stop before an accident, or slow down 50% more, than a bigger heavier crapper car that will just plough into an accident faster but leave more energy to be lost, or just smash other people to pieces in their smaller cars.
Dave
It's also worth noting that in the recent 2007 road casualties data, deaths of 'soft' targets (peds, cyclists) dropped significantly from 2006. One of the few logical reasons for this would be the rising number of new cars with softer front ends.
Its a bit like exam revision these days, gearing people (or cars in this case) to pass a test and not actually be all around proficient.
And technocrats thinking they somehow make things 'better' through their interference with all & everything.
afaik, Renault don't have any financial involvement with EuroNCAP, they just chose to emphasise safety features that would get a good rating when they were designing the things.
Remember when cars used to look like this, just to pass 5mph bumper tests;
Those regulations are still in force and today's cars pass them without needing black plastic monstrosities on either end.
Pedestrian safety regulations will all be passable for negligible cost increases and with very little visual compromise once car manufacturers start designing in these features from the start like on the jaguar xk.
Ultimately it is far easier to get some design engineers to make the front ends of cars safer than it is to get people to stop being run over, crossing a road isn't difficult getting people to adopt the correct behaviour is.
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