How NCAP evaluates the safety of a car
Euro NCAP, the acronym in English of the European Program for the Evaluation of New Cars, is the main program at European level, and one of the biggest benchmarks in the world in terms of the assessment of car safety. The Euro NCAP tests are a series of tests to which the cars that are launched on the European market are subjected, which serve to measure and assess safety levels.
After 20 years of service, Euro NCAP has managed to save thousands of lives by ostensibly improving the safety of our cars. Currently, it has the collaboration of manufacturers, organizations, state governments and consumer associations that place them as a benchmark in terms of road safety. But what tests are carried out? How does NCAP evaluate the safety of a car ? In the following article we will explain it to you.
What is Euro NCAP?
The studies that have been done raise to almost 80, 000 the lives that have been saved since the crash tests were introduced in 1997, rigorous crash tests with which Euro NCAP evaluates the safety of each car that goes on sale. During this time, more than 600 safety assessments have been made, the crash has been tested and evaluated in more than 1, 800 types of cars and they have introduced many safety measures that, years ago, seemed like a chimera.
The beginnings of Euro NCAP
When the first tests were carried out in 1997, the great safety deficiencies among the best-selling cars of the moment were seen. At this point, the way in which the safety of the vehicles was approached was reconsidered and, to date, 90% of the cars sold in Europe are valued by Euro NCAP, adapting to the increasingly stringent requirements.
The evolution of security
If we compare the results of the Euro NCAP tests thrown by the crash tests from 1997 until today we will observe the enormous advances that have been made in terms of safety:
- Duct airbags and passenger
- Side airbags
- Eyewear for the seatbelt
- ESP: electronic security control
These are some of the common measures in most cars today that substantially improve the safety of vehicles. But if you have made progress so much, if the cars pass tests that are more and more demanding is not only why protect pedestrians and passengers before a crash, but also by the measures introduced that prevent these accidents from happening.
Car manufacturers have to demonstrate that their vehicles are technologically and adequately equipped to avoid accidents, for example, by braking before an obstacle or redirecting the car when it is about to leave its lane. Thanks to the era of technological improvements that we are experiencing and the momentum of Euro NCAP, today's cars are much safer. However, the expertise and know-how of the driver is always important. In the following article you will know how to travel safely on the road.
How NCAP assesses active security
Euro NCAP evaluates the safety of the car through tests that represent real actions that occur on the road and that can mean damage, or even death, for both passengers and pedestrians. In these tests, car manufacturers have to demonstrate that their cars are equipped with the necessary technological and technical elements to avoid an accident or to mitigate its effects when it is irreversible.
The information offered by these tests, called crash tests, tell us about security before:
- Frontal impacts
- Lateral
- Cervical lashes
Frontal shocks
If we take into account that frontal crashes are the accidents that cause more injuries and deaths each year, it is not surprising that in the Euro NCAP score they are very important. To evaluate the safety of a car in the face of these accidents, it is subjected to frontal / lateral impacts at a speed of 64 km / h through deformable barriers with the consistency and structure of another car colliding at a speed of 50 km / h.
The full frontal crash is done against a totally rigid barrier at a speed of 50 km / h. In all cases dummies are used, the name received by the monitored dolls that receive and simulate the injuries suffered by men, women and children.
Lateral shocks
The lateral collisions are, after the lateral ones, the accidents that annually produce more deaths and injuries. The crash tests used by Euro NCAP to measure the impacts and safety of vehicles are made by impacting a deformable barrier at a speed of 50 km / h to a car.
In another test it is hit against a rigid and narrow mast, which could simulate a telephone pole or signal, circulating at a speed of 32 km / h. In all cases, the protection of the ducts and the rest of the occupants of the car is measured with dummies . Through these crash tests has been able to increase the protection of the members by reinforcements in the structure of the car or adding side airbags .
In the following article you will discover what are the car's security systems.
How NCAP evaluates passive safety
Euro NCAP is not interested only in passive safety systems, ie those that absorb the power of the blow or that prevent the damage of the accident are greater, but also worry that there are active systems that prevent that accident to occur . In this regard, since 2015 the AEBs, the autonomous braking systems, which are activated when the car detects a possible accident, have been analyzed.
Taking into account that many of the injuries that occur in the city are whiplash due to collisions from behind, the AEB is a highly effective system so that they do not happen. However, other measures that are taken into account to give the final score of a vehicle are:
- Witness to warn that the safety belt is not in place
- Security control system
- Interurban AEB, measured at a speed between 30 and 80 km / h
- Lane involuntary change assistant
- In addition, tests that measure the seats as well as the head restraints and restraint systems are also included.
One of the things that can surprise you to know how Euro NCAP evaluates the safety of cars, is that the crashes they are subjected to are not at high speed. The truth is that it is given more importance to the response of the vehicle to situations likely to not know what is the maximum that can end up supporting. In any case, the car manufacturers already have their own systems with which they make simulations with impacts in which their cars could be involved. All this has allowed, even today, cheap new cars have much higher safety standards than large high-end cars 10 or 20 years ago.
