With their vast array of sensors that can record more than 1,000 measurements per second in 45 different parts of the body, a crash test dummy is by all accounts undeserving of its name.
Thanks to their anatomy, articulation and weight distribution, all carefully designed to mimic a human being, these anthropomorphic friends of ours are just one of the many components that contribute to making our cars, and consequently our roads, safer.
Car companies have been crash testing their cars since as far back as the 1930s, with the first ‘dummy’ having entered the picture in 1949 after it was decided that actual human cadavers were starting to test the limits of effectiveness, not to mention ethics.
Numerous innovations ensued, such as crumple zones, seatbelts and collapsible steering columns, to name a few.
But in the past three decades independent crash testing has proven to be the real game-changer, forcing car manufacturers to make their cars significantly more survivable. It takes just one glance at some of the earlier Euro NCAP crash test videos to see how low the standards were as recently as the 1990s.
Yet while affluent regions such as Europe and the US have seen tremendous gains in vehicle occupant safety, many emerging markets (EMs) have lagged behind as OEMs sought to keep tabs on pricing in less affluent regions.
Global NCAP, a UK based charity, has played an instrumental role in fighting for higher standards in the so-called ‘emerging’ world through its support of regional NCAP initiatives such as Latin NCAP, Safer Cars for India and its South African equivalent, which all assess cars in their localised specification.
In a recent interview, Global NCAP’s General Secretary Alejandro Furas told IOL that the most successful New Car Assessment Programmes (NCAPs) around the world are those that are also supported by governments in those regions and backed up by updated legislation.
“We have seen dramatic progress in India since we started testing back in 2014, when safety standards in general were weak and regulations not very up to date,” Furas told IOL.
“We created a market for safety there, and we created a big concern from consumers’ side regarding safety aspects.”
Since then it has become commonplace to see comprehensive safety equipment, such as six airbags and electronic stability control, fitted to India’s most popular car models. India’s government also intends to mandate a minimum of six airbags, although this legislation appears to have been delayed.
These features certainly don’t guarantee a commendable safety rating, Furas says, but it is a very good first step.
A vehicle’s safety cage is every bit as instrumental, as we saw with the South African Nissan NP300’s zero-star rating in 2018, where the vehicle’s structure performed so badly that the airbags were deemed ineffective.
This has been a hot topic for Global NCAP because when it comes to safety features as well as structures, all is not equal around the world.
“We have seen cars that look exactly the same as another model somewhere else in the world, even from the same plant in some cases, but with significant differences in equipment.
“But even if they have the same amount of airbags, they might be different airbags, triggered at different time intervals, or they might be a different shape.
“We have seen the same seatbelts performing in different ways, and adjusted or developed in one way or the other for different markets. We’re talking about the same car!
“And beyond that we have structures which look the same but do not perform the same,” Furas added.
He explained that the organisation has seen the same supposed vehicle built in different parts of the world with a lower proportion of High Strength Steel (HSS), which is usually more expensive due to the hot-stamping process used to create it. The removal of reinforcements and lower spot weld densities have also been seen in some of the EM market cars, which could be related to electricity saving as well as insufficient equipment maintenance.
Global NCAP would not be drawn on specific examples, although casual mention was made of the Hyundai i10, whose European variant’s structure was rated as “stable” in the Euro NCAP test, but less so in Global NCAP’s test of the Indian-built Grand i10 equivalent, which received two stars.
Back in 2011 Latin NCAP found the Nissan March (AKA Micra) for that region to be structurally inferior to the European version that Euro NCAP tested, although Nissan later made improvements that led to a four-star rating for the Brazilian model in 2015.
Global NCAP’s testing regime has not been without controversy however.
In the most recent #SaferCarsForAfrica report released in July by Global NCAP in partnership with the Automobile Association, the Suzuki Ertiga - which is also sold as the Toyota Rumion - received a one-star adult occupant safety rating.
However, Suzuki accused the safety organisation of not being completely transparent with its findings.
It said GNCAP references an older-generation 2019 Ertiga frontal crash test for the Indian market in its 2024 crash report for the SA version.
The local OEM said furthermore that GNCAP did not offer its results to the company for scrutiny ahead of being published, as it had in previous years.
Interestingly the 2019 test for India resulted in a three-star rating. While GNCAP’s testing protocols became more stringent in 2022, Suzuki Auto SA feels aggrieved that the model appears to have not been physically retested.
It says improvements have been made since then, both to the car and to the testing procedure, which could have influenced the outcome of the newer rating.
IOL scrutinised both test reports and although the frontal crash test vehicle matches the 2019 report (which is in fact a pre-facelift rather than an older generation model), the side impact crash test image does show a more recent post-facelift car.
In response, the AA told IOL that the manufacturer was involved in the entire process. Although in this case it appears that manufacturer was Maruti Suzuki of India rather than Suzuki Auto SA.
Either way, surely more transparency would go a long way in future campaigns?
Because when all is said and done, safety testing is for the benefit of the consumer and vehicle safety is a matter of life and death.
Further evolution of crash tests
Crash testing will continue to evolve and it’s encouraging to see that another highly important aspect - that of bigger cars posing an excessive danger to occupants of smaller and lighter vehicles - is being addressed in the latest MPDB (Mobile Progressive Deformable Barrier) test performed by Euro NCAP.
To that end Alejandro Furas told IOL that new testing procedures such as MPDP are intended to be introduced to the other regional NCAPs in the coming years.
But what does all this crash testing mean for you, the consumer?
Be sure to scrutinise the safety ratings before you buy a car. Ideally the #SaferCarsForAfrica rating if it’s available.
If your car is not on the list above, the NCAP ratings from the country where your car was built could serve as a second best option, keeping in mind that they’re not necessarily completely applicable to our market as safety features could differ.
But most importantly… If you and all of your occupants are not wearing seat belts, your car’s safety features and crumple zones are worth virtually nothing.
IOL Motoring