Euro NCAP to test lorry safety

Euro NCAP has announced that it will expand its scope from cars and vans to provide detailed safety information about the safety of new heavy trucks.

The new ‘Truck Safe’ rating scheme will enable the freight industry to identify and assess the safety level of equipment in heavy truck fleets. 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 road authority schemes.

Heavy trucks represent almost 1.5% of vehicles on Europe’s roads but are involved in almost 15% of all EU road deaths. 

Advanced Driver Assistance technologies are now standard on most European cars, and Euro NCAP says they are contributing to more than a 40% reduction in some types of crashes. 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.

Euro NCAP believes creating a market where the safest choice of vehicle is the most profitable choice of vehicle will be critical to success. One way of achieving this is for Euro NCAP to link with national, regional and local initiatives such as local access restrictions, freight best practice schemes, public procurement contracting, and insurers to create incentives.