Euro NCAP to test lorry safety

Euro NCAP has announced the first details about its future lorry safety testing protocol.  The organisation has a long history of boosting safety standards for passenger cars, and more recently vans, through its various rating schemes, and is now moving into the lorry segment.  

Lorries represent only 3% of vehicles on Europe’s roads but are involved in almost 15% of all EU road deaths. 

The organisation says the future ‘Truck Safe’ rating will incentivise good safety performance in cities and on highways. 

Vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists)  account for nearly a third (28%) of all deaths in collisions involving HGVs. The new tests will emulate real-world collisions and encourage manufacturers to fit collision avoidance technologies and improve driver vision. 

The vehicles will be tested by sector and will focus on city delivery, highway distribution, long haul, and tipper and refuse trucks. The first release of ratings will be announced in November 2024.

Euro NCAP says the following technologies will be among those assessed in the first version of the protocol:

• Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA)
• Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
• AEB Vulnerable Road Users (AEB VRU)
• Lane Support Systems (LSS)
• Nearside Turn AEB and Move Off Prevention
• Camera Monitor Systems (eMirrors)

93% of lorries exceed the speed limit in Austria

The Austrian sustainable transport campaign group VCÖ is calling for action on speeding by lorries after a study by the Austrian Chamber of Labour showed that 93 percent of trucks on Austria’s motorways do not comply with the speed limit of 80 km/h. This causes more noise and an additional almost 200,000 tonnes of climate-damaging carbon dioxide a year and increases the risk of crashes.