- Euro NCAP launches a new program to assess truck safety, starting with driver assistance technologies.
- The program aims to go beyond minimum regulations and provide a rating system for fleets and insurers.
- Crash tests will begin in 2030, with the first safety ratings released in November 2024.
While transport trucks represent only 3 percent of all vehicles on Europe’s roads, they are involved in nearly 15 percent of the continent’s fatal collisions. To address this concerning trend, Euro NCAP, the region’s independent road safety tester, will begin testing driver assistance technologies aimed at enhancing truck safety.
As with passenger vehicles, Euro NCAP plans to do its own safety assessments with new trucks to give fleet operators a sense of which models to buy. Matthew Avery, director of strategy development, says that the safety organization has worked with cities, insurers, trucking companies, legislators, and others to develop a rating system that goes beyond government regulation.
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“New regulatory requirements have forced manufacturers to increase safety performance,” said Avery. ”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.”
As you might imagine, making trucks safe isn’t easy. As Dr. Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP’s secretary general, explains, commercial trucks’ size and weight makes them inherently more dangerous than smaller vehicles, especially to vulnerable road users, like cyclists and motorcyclists.
To guarantee safety, Euro NCAP’s new testing regime will emulate real-world collisions. The organization also wants to put a focus on driver assistance technologies first, only introducing crash tests in 2030 in order to make this program more affordable for truck makers.
The key safety technologies being assessed by Euro NCAP are: Intelligent Speed Adaptation Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), AEB for Vulnerable Road Users, Lane Support System, Nearside Turn AEB and Move Off Prevention, and Camera monitoring systems.
“Euro NCAP’s new Truck Safe rating scheme will be a first for the sector and will enable all stakeholders in the freight industry to identify and assess the safety level of trucks,” said Avery. ”Not only will this deliver enhanced safety for drivers but also create opportunities for those operators that invest in the safest vehicles, making the scheme attractive to insurers and freight shippers alike.”
Euro NCAP will test vehicles by sector, focusing on city delivery vehicles, highway distribution trucks, long haul trucks, as well as tipper and garbage trucks. The first ratings will be released in November 2024.
