The European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) is introducing new safety measures for trucks, recently revealing details of its plan to introduce heavy vehicle testing as a part of its program.
This is with the goal of introducing a Truck Safe rating system. The plan came in response to figures showing that despite making up only three per cent of vehicles on European roads, trucks are involved in 15 per cent of road fatalities.
Euro NCAP showed off these plans at NCAP24 in Munich in April.
“Sadly, when trucks are involved in crashes, their size and weight mean there is a greater risk of fatalities – especially for more vulnerable road users (VRUs),” secretary general at Euro NCPA Michiel van Ratingen says.
“Euro NCAP today highlights the need for trucks to be better equipped with life-saving technologies, particularly related to crash avoidance, vision, and aspects of post-crash rescue.
“The protocols announced today will be formally published next month and demonstrate that best practice test methods developed over the last decade for passenger cars can be turned into useful guidelines for the design of future, safer heavy trucks.
“By publicly presenting the procedures and requirements ahead of the rating, we hope that the industry will take note and react accordingly.”
The new tests that Euro NCAP hopes to put into place will emulate real-world collisions and encourage manufacturers to fit collision avoidance technologies and improve driver vision. In the future, Euro NCAP will expand the programme to include crash protection as well.
This will then see safety requirements evolve by 2030. In 2027, increased active safety requirements around manoeuvring will be required; then in 2030, Euro NCAP will start the crash testing of trucks to encourage better passive safety protection.
The vehicles will be tested by sector and will focus on city delivery, highway distribution, long haul, and tipper and refuse trucks, and Euro NCAP says it plans to release its first ratings by November this year.
“Over the past 12 months, we have worked closely with vehicle manufacturers to develop the tests and consulted with different stakeholders across Europe including distributors, hauliers, insurers, city authorities, legislators, and strategic road organisations to fully understand the complexities of making trucks and roads safer,” says Euro NCAP director of strategy development Matthew Avery.
“The future Truck Safe rating will incentivise good safety performance in both cities and highways and allow optimisation of operational safety and cost. New regulatory requirements have forced manufacturers to increase safety performance.
“However, our aim is to progress towards best practices in all types of vehicle safety, rather than just meeting minimum standards, a goal we have successfully achieved with passenger cars.”
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