SafetyGeneral Information about Auto Safety & Car Crash testing
Every year, traffic accidents kill over 1 million people all over the world – injuring 38 million, of which 5 million seriously. Thus, the death statistics on the worlds roads, makes driving a car the de facto number one cause of death and injury for the people aged from 15 to 44.
Thus, it is quite important to think about car safety. Especially if your are thinking of purchasing a used, or even a new car. With the beginning of using airbags and car crash testing, the amount of people who are killed or injured in car accidents has diminished in the most countries. The International NCAP (also known as the NEW CAR ASSESSMENT PROGRAM) rating, can provide a useful advantage in the process of car safety compartment. As it might be obvious, you have many organizations/administrations which are responsible for car safety ratings. Furthermore, it must be added that different countries have different types of organizations.
In the U.S. – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
NHTSA is a good source of safety information for a big quantity of cars and generally traffic vehicles. Mostly through their New and updated programme, the US-NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) – which uses and outdated crash-testing modus-operandi. Furthermore, this US-NCAP only features vehicles which are built after the year 1994.
Moreover, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) does it’s own personal testing for the insurance commerce, however, data is only obtainable for a couple of late model vehicles.
In the E.U.
The most known and popular modles are crash tested by the E-NCAP (European New Car Assessment Program) – which is a governmental and car club association, which is overseen by the FIA. Furthermore, in the EU, the pedestrians are also taken into consideration. Since pedestrians and bicyclists are significantly more vulnerable than the vehicle passanger, the European NCAP has created a Pedestrian Evaluation Test, which tests the most perilous areas of each model. Even though the pedestrian test is an important element in car safety, at this moment, there is no legislation that enforces the manufacturers to comply with these Euro-NCAP Pedestrian Criterions, thus we have not included them in our ratings.
N.B. In Germany, there are magazines which sponsor car crash tests of a small number of European vehicles. This information, however, is only accessible to the subscribers of the magazine. An example of such a magazine is: Auto Motor und Sport.
In Australia – Australian New Car Assessment Program (Australian-NCAP)
The Australian NCAP had the NHTSA (U.S. test procedure) – but currently started to use the Euro-NCAP testing procedures.
In Japan – National Organization for Automotive Safety & Victims’ Aid (OSA)
This organization sponsors the Japanese NCAP – which include the: Full Frontal, Frotnal Offset and side impact collision tests. Mainly on the most popular Japanese made vehicles.
