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Speaking at
a conference to mark the occasion, FIA President Max Mosley,
former chairman of Euro NCAP, praised the programme
for the impact it has had on the car industry.
Mosley said: “Euro NCAP has radically accelerated
the use of safety technologies in the new car market. Progress
in occupant protection during a crash has dramatically improved
at a rate far faster than traditional forms of vehicle safety
standards have ever been able to achieve.”
He added
that the challenge now is to sustain this progress. Euro
NCAP has improved safety for drivers and passengers
during a crash but it should now look at ways of avoiding
that crash in the first place.
One of the ways to do this
is via ‘eSafety’ technologies
such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC). Mosley is campaigning
for the fast track introduction of this technology in all
vehicles across Europe (see separate article).
Mosley was
joined at the conference by EU Transport Commissioner Jacques
Barrot, Euro NCAP Chairman Claes Tingvall and the
UK’s Road Safety Minister, Dr Stephen Ladyman MP. They
all paid homage to the achievements of the independent crash
test programme during its first decade.
Euro NCAP has revolutionised
in-car safety across Europe since it was launched in November
1996. Before then the only
Europe wide test of vehicle safety was done by the European
Experimental Vehicles Committee (EEVC).
In the early 1990s,
the only full scale crash test required by European legislation
was a full width rigid block impact,
which was intended to control intrusion of the steering column.
No test dummy was present in the car and there were no requirements
for either side impact or pedestrian protection.
Unsatisfied
with this assessment, national automobile associations such
as Germany’s Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club
(ADAC) decided to commission crash tests themselves and publish
the results. It was soon found that consumers were making
choices based on those results.
But the adoption of these
types of test proposals in European legislation were still
strongly resisted by the car industry.
Partly as a consequence, in June 1994, the Transport Research
Laboratory (TRL) proposed to the UK Department of Transport
that it should consider starting an NCAP in the UK, which
could later expand across Europe.
In April 1995, the Department
of Transport contracted TRL to start development of the programme.
From the beginning,
the programme was ambitious. It was more comprehensive than
those carried out elsewhere and included major plans for
expansion.
In November 1996, this plan was fulfilled as the
FIA, along with the Swedish National Road Administration (SNRA), linked
up with the UK programme to form Euro NCAP. With FIA President
Mosley as Chairman, Euro NCAP accelerated the programme instigated
by the UK Department of Transport.
But it continued to be
met with a strong negative response of the car manufacturers.
They heavily criticised Euro NCAP,
its tests and its ratings and claimed the assessment criteria
was so severe that no car could achieve four stars for occupant
protection.
In July 1997, Euro NCAP announced that the Volvo
S40 had become the first four star car for occupant protection.
Consumers
began to take notice as Volvo used the rating in its advertising
campaigns.
From this point on the wheels were literally set
in motion. The major car manufacturers soon realised the
selling point
of safety and became keen to boast the star ratings of their
vehicles. They soon came to recognise the marketing potential
of a four or much coveted five-star rating.
As such, improvements
in the protection of some car models since Euro NCAP’s
inception have been dramatic. The Fiat Punto and Renault
Clio, for example, both scored two
stars in occupant protection in 1997. When tested this year,
both vehicles demonstrated a marked improvement, each achieving
the maximum five-star rating.
The first five-star rating for
occupant protection was achieved by the Renault Laguna in
2001. The Renault Modus became the
first supermini to achieve the maximum star rating, in 2004.
This was a huge achievement for a category of car for which
a five-star rating was believed to be unobtainable.
Clearly,
Euro NCAP had set new benchmarks and raised the bar for safety
standards. UK Road Safety Minister, Dr Stephen
Ladyman, said:
“When the UK Government started its NCAP
programme a decade ago, it was almost impossible to assess
the competitive
safety of passenger cars. But in collaboration with the FIA
and others, Euro NCAP has pioneered a ratings system that
is both a benchmark for manufacturers and a quality assurance
for the consumer.”
Euro NCAP has also had a huge influence
on child occupant protection, which has progressed so far
as to warrant a separate
test category. By highlighting the protection a vehicle offers
its infant occupants, Euro NCAP encourages manufacturers
to take responsibility for the protection of children.
As
well as occupant protection, Euro NCAP also assesses the
pedestrian protection offered by new cars. Here, improvements
have been slow to emerge. It took until September 2003 for
the first three-star rating to be achieved. Only in November
2005 was the first four-star rating, the maximum that can
be achieved for pedestrian protection, awarded to the Citroën
C6.
Other crash tests include Frontal Impact Protection, Side
Impact Protection, Side Impact Head Protection and Pedestrian
Protection, each offering an official star rating.
Independent
analyses of accident data have proven the effectiveness of
the star rating system. In September 2000, for instance,
SNRA and Monash University reported that cars with three
or four stars are approximately 30 per cent safer, compared
to two star cars or cars without a Euro NCAP score, in car
to car collisions.
Euro NCAP has also received a number of
awards in recognition of its work in vehicle safety, including
the Autocar Safety
Award (1998), the FT Global Automotive Award (1999), IMI
Gold Medal (2000), Quattroruote Special Award for Safety
(2001), 2003 Prince Michael International Award (2003), AutoBest
Safetybest Award (2005).
More importantly, throughout the
last decade, Euro NCAP has prompted car manufacturers to
put safety at the forefront
of vehicle design. No doubt, over the next decade, it will
continue to ensure that this will always be the case.
This film, made by Richard Stanley Productions on behalf of Euro
NCAP and the FIA Foundation, examines the success of Euro NCAP
and interviews some of the key participants in the development
of the programme.
View film (requires Windows Media Player):
Low-Res | Medium-Res | High-Res
Download film (requires QuickTime):
Low-Res | Medium-Res | High-Res |
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