Built-in car safety has made huge advances

Columnist

Are “NCAP” safety ratings mostly just theory and hard-sell, or do they make a significant difference in the event of a severe accident?

Absolom

Short answer: There are no designs or tests that cover every possible crash situation, but NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) physically assesses the most crucial safety features – not just whether they are part of the design, but how well they actually work in a severe crash. The test drives cars at speed into deformable concrete, from different angles, watches the process with specialised slo-mo cameras, and looks at the result with an expert eye, precise measurements, and reams of computerised data on angles and forces. It also rolls cars upside-down. Their results are definitely meaningful in practice. NCAP issues grades from 1 to 5. The higher the number the better. Because there is not a 6, some of the cars that score 5 have merely (and perhaps only just) achieved the top benchmark, others might have far exceeded it.

NCAP examines whether (and in what way and to what extent) the airbags effectively deploy, how well the progressive crumple zones of the front absorb impact energy, whether steering columns fold inside the bonnet so the steering wheel itself does not move, that the engine mountings break in deliberate sequence to send the engine downwards to the ground and under the floor, and that nothing from the engine compartment enters the passenger safety cell; that the safety cell itself remains in almost perfect shape – so perfect that the doors (which should stay shut on impact) can still be opened normally. In the best designs, and illustrating how effectively crumple zones absorb shock energy, even in collisions severe enough to ram the front bumper right up to the dashboard bulkhead, the windscreen sometimes doesn’t even crack, and driver and passengers - who, not many years ago, would almost certainly have suffered life-threatening or life-ending injury - have a good chance of getting out and walking away (albeit dazed and perhaps badly bruised).

Built-in car safety has made huge advances

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