Euro NCAP plans for new truck safety rating scheme
Traditionally providing consumers with information on car safety, Euro NCAP has announced plans to expand its scope even further to provide detailed safety information about the safety of heavy trucks via an innovative Truck Safe City and Highway rating scheme.
In its latest report ‘Safer Trucks: on the Road to Vision Zero’, Euro NCAP outlines that the new Truck Safe rating scheme will enable all stakeholders in the freight industry to identify and assess the safety level of equipment in their heavy truck fleets.
Euro NCAP claims this will deliver enhanced safety for drivers and create a market for safe technology that will allow manufacturers to innovate and advance their offering within a clear framework for safety.
Cities and public authorities will be able to clearly identify the best vehicles for their roads and incentivise adoption and companies will be able to easily determine the vehicle specifications they need to comply with in road authority schemes, according to Euro NCAP’s report.
“By examining safety levels of heavy and commercial trucks and improving their safety, I believe that we can end traffic-related fatalities and help many European countries to achieve their ‘Vision Zero’ target in road casualties,” said Michiel van Ratingen, secretary general at Euro NCAP.
“A truck safety label can incentivise good performance, allow optimisation of operational safety and cost, and will accelerate regulatory efforts to improve truck safety. European roads will hence become safer.
“We are actively seeking new members that can invest resources and their knowledge to help us make this scheme the success that society needs it to be. This marks the beginning of a new, challenging, and exciting journey for Euro NCAP, its members and those who wish to join us in the future.”
Euro NCAP’s report states that heavy trucks represent almost 1.5 per cent of vehicles on Europe’s roads and are involved in almost 15 per cent of all EU road fatalities.
“Advanced Driver Assistance technologies are now standard on most European cars, and they are contributing to more than a 40 per cent reduction in some crashes,” Matthew Avery, chief research strategy officer at Thatcham Research said.
“Heavy trucks have the very same crashes but don’t have this technology fitted, leading to a disproportionate number of casualties in crashes involving heavy vehicles.”