UNDERSTANDING VEHICLE SAFETY

Recently, there was uproar on social media about a certain Suzuki S-Presso with zero safety rating flooding the streets of Nigeria and commonly being used by Uber and Bolt drivers. I was particularly impressed about the level of concern and awareness people showed. However, it would be interesting to note that vehicle safety standards involve some more details than we might be aware of. Let’s take a look at how it’s done.

Suzuki S-Presso

Different Countries have regulatory bodies that oversee vehicle safety and roadworthiness like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the USA. These regulatory bodies are laden with the duty of educating road users and preventing and minimizing accidents on the highway as well as faulty vehicle recalls, constant assessment of vehicle parts and accessories and enforcement of safe driving measures. The equivalent here in Nigeria is the FRSC and the VIO except they have a lesser scope of work giving the primitive level of our automobile industry.

However, there is a voluntary vehicle safety rating system created to provide buyers with information regarding passenger vehicle safety called the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). There is the Global NCAP that serves as a platform for cooperation amongst the different programmes & promotes the universal adoption of the United Nations most important motor vehicle safety standards. The European NCAP also known as the EuroNCAP was one of the earliest NCAPs established. It is the benchmark for other NCAPs and sets the pace for automobile safety testing. Other NCAP programmes have also been established in Australia & New Zealand, China, Japan, Korea, Latin America and the USA.

Example of NCAP in India

Despite not being legislative, the NCAP reports and ratings are seen as important and vehicle manufacturers strive to achieve the required ratings. However, unlike different national regulatory bodies that focus on individual systems or general vehicle performance, the NCAP focuses on crashworthiness or what we call "crash tests". The test uses dummies as drivers & passengers, no humans are involved in any of the crash tests. The rating system has also been expanded to include and consider vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and fitment of safety assist systems that contribute to collision avoidance.

The Safety rating is determined from percentage scores for Adult occupant, Child occupant, vulnerable road users and safety assist and they are obtained in a series of controlled vehicle tests which represent real-life accident scenarios. Each test have series of sub tests that would not be included in this article. To simplify ratings and help consumers identify the safest choice for their needs, the percentage scores are done using ratings of stars; Five being the best and Zero being the worst. Vehicle model years, specs and safety features must be confirmed for correct interpretation of results. It is also important to note that these ratings do not apply to vehicles built with material deviations from the specifications tested. That explains why custom made vehicles and special edition vehicles off the mainstream production lines are usually not tested.

Test Dummies of NCAP Tests

Even though the NCAP name is global, the NCAPs are not identical due to differences in local market conditions and level of development in each local motor industry. Countries in Africa do not have local NCAP programmes but rely on the Global NCAP. With the guidance of the Global NCAP, newer NCAPs are progressively working towards alignment with the EuroNCAP. Example of this includes the #safercarsforAfrica programme which helped discover that cars like Chery QQ3, Nissan NP300 hardbody and the GWM Steed had zero stars in safety rating. 

New ratings for the Suzuki S-Presso from the Global NCAP puts it at a 3 star safety rating. It is also important to note that since most of the vehicles we use are imported, we stick to safety ratings done from tests in the production & assembly country of origin. The picture below shows a number of vehicles assessed and rated under the #safercarsforAfrica programme.

GLOBAL NCAP

It is still important to note that majority of fatalities are attributed to human factors and while efforts are being made to manufacture the safest vehicles, we should avoid distractions while driving and adhere to safest driving principles while we turbo that engine. 

This episode is brought to you by Guest Writer, Dr. Temi Wisdom. Do leave a comment if you enjoyed this write up and would like to get more content from him!