Pedestrian protection is priority in push for safer streets

Date: 06/02/03

By Peter Chapman

EuroNCAP says crash tests increase car buyers' awareness

WHAT'S the difference between an Audi TT and an MGTF? Not a lot, if you are lucky enough to own one of the two sleekest roadsters around.Both will outrun a hundred horses, corner like an express train, and have crucial poser appeal.

Motoring purists probably prefer the road manners of the Audi to the frivolous MG. But there is one really crucial difference. If you're unlucky enough to be hit by an MG as it cruises down a suburban byway, at least you're less likely to die.

The diminutive MG is one of the top scoring cars on the market for its performance in pedestrian crash tests carried out by the European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP).

It scored three out of five in EuroNCAP's pedestrian tests - which replicate accidents involving child and adult pedestrians at 40km/h.

By contrast, the sleek TT scored nil.

The results are part of the latest round of EuroNCAP tests unveiled last week by the Brussels-based body.

Sharing the top spot for most dangerous car is the inappropriately named Skoda Superb, which recorded another nil points for pedestrian safety.

What is the purpose of the tests?

Critics argue that the safest car in the world is only as safe as the driver. But EuroNCAP claims its tests, launched back in 1997, have led to greater awareness of safety issues among car buyers.

Max Mosley, the group's chairman, said: "It provides motoring consumers with a realistic and independent assessment of the safety performance of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe," adding that the programme has become a "catalyst for encouraging significant improvements to new car design".

The European Union wants to push carmakers even further by forcing them to meet tough pedestrian safety tests.

The European Commission will unveil a draft directive next week to do just that.

This is expected to put voluntary commitments made by the car industry into a legal framework, to ensure carmakers can be brought to account if they fail to deliver.

Erkki Liikanen, the commissioner for enterprise, said the focus is on the design of vehicle fronts so as to reduce the fatalities and injuries to pedestrians struck head-on.

But he said it also introduces requirements for anti-lock braking systems, and a commitment by the industry to progressively introduce advanced active safety systems.

"The requirements for pedestrian safety are being introduced in two stages, and the industry is investigating ways of satisfying the requirements," said Liikanen.

"One of the suggested ways is the possible use of a 'smart' bonnet catch mechanism that pops the bonnet up when the car perceives that a pedestrian is about to be struck and thus provide extra space between the bonnet and the hard components underneath."

External airbags could be used to provide additional protections, he added. Both safety developments would require sensors able to differentiate between a person and other obstacles.

"This sort of pedestrian protection is a completely new field and the new requirements have to be integrated in the development process for car models right from the beginning. Measures have already been taken to achieve this integration," said Liikanen.

Safety campaigners say his proposals are not strong enough because they are based on weak commitments made by industry. But Liikanen says restrictive legislation and rigid laws soon become obsolete as technology races ahead.

Report on the results of the latest round of pedestrian crash tests carried out by the European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP).

http://www.euroncap.com/ http://www.euroncap.com/

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