Crashtest.com - Australian NCAP (NRMA) crash-testing procedures

The ANCAP - Australian New Car Assessment Program involves crash testing new model vehicles - under strictly controlled conditions - to compare the injury levels (and survival prospects) of occupants involved in frontal and side impacts and publish the results.

ANCAP is an important consumer safety initiative, strongly supported by the NRMA Member Services, RACV, RACQ, RAASA, RACWA, RACT, AANT, the State government road and transport authorities in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, the Commonwealth Department of Transport and Regional Services, the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), the New Zealand Automobile Association (NZAA) and the New Zealand Land Transport Safety Authority.

The ANCAP testing program commenced in 1992. It was based on the 56 km/h full-width frontal barrier test developed by the NHTSA for the US-NCAP. Since then, its development has been heavily influenced by Euro-NCAP and the IIHS. It was clear from the observation of real-world crashes that an offset test was required. Between 1993 and mid-1999 ANCAP conducted both full-frontal and offset crash tests, basing ratings on both tests.

During the second half of year 1999, ANCAP aligned its test and assessment procedures with those of Euro-NCAP. The Euro-NCAP procedures are outlined farther down the page.

Ideally new car buyers could use the star ratings to compare at a glance how cars on their shopping list fared. But, because the combined star rating reflects both front and side-impact safety, serious flaws can be masked when a car does well in, say, the frontal test, and badly in the side impact test.

As a remedy, Euro-NCAP has kept the existing star ratings but has decided to publish the individual test scores, too. These are expressed as a percentage of the marks achievable for frontal and side performance. Such changes also bring into focus instances where a top-scoring three-star car is almost as good as a low-end four-star car. Please keep in mind that NHTSA's star system and ANCAP's star system are NOT the same. As in the EuroNCAP test results, crashtest.com chooses to represent the Australian NCAP rating in terms of a percentage.

Key To the ANCAP Ratings (late 1999 and newer)

	Combined Frontal Offset/Side Impact Result of 80-100%
	Combined Frontal Offset/Side Impact Result of 60-79%
	Combined Frontal Offset/Side Impact Result of 40-59%
	Combined Frontal Offset/Side Impact Result of 20-39%
	Combined Frontal Offset/Side Impact Result of 0-19%

For early 1999 and older ANCAP test results please go to bottom of this page

Euro-NCAP Testing Procedures (same as Australian-NCAP since mid 1999)

The results of the offset and side impact crash tests are evaluated. Each of four body regions is assigned a score out of a maximum of 4 points. For example, a HIC of 1000, which is poor, would result a head score of zero but a good HIC of 600 would earn 4 points. Where more than one injury measurement applies for the body region then the lowest value is used - this includes the passenger scores in the case of the offset crash test.

With the offset test the injury scores are subject to modifiers. For example, excessive rearward movement of the steering wheel might result in one penalty point applying to the head score (so an unmodified score of 4 would reduce to 3). These modifiers include airbag stability, steering column movement, A-pillar movement, structural integrity, hazardous structures in the knee impact area and brake pedal movement.

The four body region scores for the offset test are added together to give an offset score out of 16 points. Similarly, the four side impact scores are added together to give a side impact score out of 16 points. The offset and side impact scores are added together to give an overall score with a maximum of 32 points. If a pole test is conducted and shows good head protection then an extra two points is added to the overall score, which is then out of 34 points.

The star rating is based on the overall score. For example, an overall score of 22 points would earn 3 stars. If the injury score for the head, chest, abdomen or pelvis is zero then there is a high risk of a life-threatening injury. In this case a warning note is added to the overall rating (Euro-NCAP uses a "struck star" to indicate this situation). Please keep in mind that NHTSA's star system and Euro-NCAP's star system are NOT the same.

Offset Frontal Impact - In the frontal offset (as opposed to full frontal) impact test, a moving vehicle with dummies in the driver's and the front passenger seat hits an offset deformable barrier at 64 km/h (40 mph), in order to evaluate the impact on the head, chest, and legs - and (in contrast to the 1974 testing protocol) also to assess damage to the vehicle. This test represents a typical head-on collision of two vehicles of the same weight, travelling at 64 km/h (40 mph). Because only part of the vehicle body sustains the impact, the impact on the dummy is less than in full-frontal collisions, but there is greater vehicle body deformation, making it suitable for the evaluation of the injury caused by intrusion to occupants.

Key To Euro-NCAP Frontal Impact Ratings

	Frontal Impact Result of 80-100%
	Frontal Impact Result of 60-79%
	Frontal Impact Result of 40-59%
	Frontal Impact Result of 20-39%
	Frontal Impact Result of 0-19%

In the offset frontal impact test, instead of hitting a solid block head-on, the test car crashes into a deformable structure (a crushable aluminum face), resembling the most important characteristics of the other car's front. Other cars do not behave like solid objects when hit: they 'give' at the front, hence the aluminium honeycomb block used in the test. The impact across 40 per cent of the test car's front represents a crash with a car of equivalent size and weight. Frontal car-to-car crashes are by far the most common sort of accident, and usually involve a collision across only part of the car's width. The offset test is always on the driver's side where there is more risk of injury from the steering wheel and pedals. This is essential in ensuring that a car's front is designed to absorb the impact's energy in a realistic way. This sort of test is actually tougher for a car to do well in than one involving a full-on collision with a solid block. The Euro-NCAP test is carried out at 64km/h (40mph).

Although similar to the American IIHS testing regimen, there is considerable variation between IIHS and the Euro-NCAP chest compression criteria. In particular, more lenient standards in the US for chest compression resulted in discrepancies between IIHS and Euro-NCAP ratings. This has led to some vehicles receiving a markedly different rating under Euro-NCAP compared with IIHS or previous Australian-NCAP procedures. This can undermine the credibility of the programs in the eyes of consumers - a point not lost on some NCAP-sceptical motoring journalists.

Side Impact - Side impacts rank behind only frontal crashes as the cause of front-seat occupant fatalities, accounting for 33% of all fatalities in any given year. It is estimated that at least 50% of those fatalites are a direct result of head injuries. Euro-NCAP crash tests demonstrate the potential benefits of side airbags with head protection in side impact crashes.

Key To Euro-NCAP Side Impact Ratings

	Side Impact Result of 80-100%
	Side Impact Result of 60-79%
	Side Impact Result of 40-59%
	Side Impact Result of 20-39%
	Side Impact Result of 0-19%

Side impacts are less frequent than frontal collisions but their consequences are often more serious. In the Euro-NCAP side impact test, a stationary vehicle with dummies seated in the driver's and front passenger's seat is rammed by a moving trolley (with a crushable aluminum face) going 50 km/h (30 mph) directly centered on the driver's seating postition.

There is a new provision in the Euro-NCAP protocol for a side impact pole test to be conducted at the manufacturer's expense. This only applies where a maximum head score is achieved in the side impact barrier test and a "head protecting" side airbag is provided. Until all vehicles are pole tested, we will not add this test to Crashtest.com's ratings. (See European NCAP Star Ratings, below.)

Pedestrian Protection - Under guidelines established by the EEVS, Euro-NCAP has begun a testing program geared towards protecting pedestrians as well as vehicle occupants. Pedestrians are much more vulnerable than car occupants when a crash occurs. Euro NCAP's pedestrian evaluation tests the most hazardous areas of each model. This is done by firing dummy parts at those areas, simulating 40kph (25mph) accidents involving adults and children. A simulated leg is impacted against the bumper, an upper leg against the front edge of the bonnet, and dummy heads, both child- and adult-sized, at points on the bonnet. Each of the heads are tested at six different locations and each limb at three, making 18 impacts in all. Measuring devices inside the dummy parts record the severity of impact, and the results are used to rate each car.

No cars yet tested have provided sufficient protection to meet all of the requirements of the proposed legislation. However Euro NCAP provides an incentive for manufacturers to do more to protect pedestrians. Currently a median is taken allowing each car's performance to be described as better or worse than average. No legislation setting out minimum requirements for pedestrian safety currently exists, but the proposed requirements could eventually become law. Because the requirements are only in the proposal stage and Euro-NCAP is the only agency participating in these tests, Crashtest.com does not include the results in our ratings. Interested parties can click on a specific vehicle's hyperlink to see how they faired in pedestrian testing (providing they were tested).

Arriving At the Results

The Australian NCAP Rating Sytem used prior to mid-year 1999 procedural and data reporting change can be found below.

The frontal offset crash test into a fixed barrier is conducted at a speed of 64km/h. In this test, crash forces are concentrated on the driver's side of the vehicle. 40 per cent of the width of the car initially makes contact with the barrier, which has a crushable aluminium face on it. This simulates colliding with another vehicle.

Rating Categories (Old Australian NCAP system)

	GOOD
	ACCEPTABLE
	MARGINAL
	POOR

The side impact test consists of running a 950kg (2090 lb) trolley into the driver's side of the test vehicle at 50km per hour.

Rating Categories (Old Australian NCAP system)

	GOOD
	ACCEPTABLE
	MARGINAL
	POOR

A Few Words About Air Bags inflate very quickly in the event of a severe frontal crash. They are designed to work together with the seat belt and do not eliminate the need for a seat belt (The SRS in "SRS Air Bag" stands for Supplementary Restraint System). The inflated air bag cushions the head, of the occupant and prevents the occupant hitting the dash, steering wheel or windscreen.

A typical air bag starts to inflate within about 2 one-hundreths of a second of the start of the crash and is fully inflated some 3 one-hundredths of a second later. The occupant is thrown forward into the air bag at about this time and starts to sink deeply into the air bag. After about one-tenth of a second the air bag begins to deflate, having served its purpose.

Full-width frontal crash tests conducted by the Federal Office of Road Safety and Australian NCAP compared the protection from serious head injury provided by driver's air bags. The results are set out in the brochure Air Bags Enhance Safety. The Holden Commodore, Mitsubishi Magna and Toyota Camry were tested with and without a driver's air bag. For the Commodore and Camry without an air bag the risk of serious head injury was about double that of the same model with a driver's air bag. The Magna was the best performer of vehicles without an air bag but the risk of serious head injury was four times that of the vehicle with an air bag.

For further information on Australian NCAP test procedures please read the following research papers written by Australian safety engineer Michael Paine: 1. Consumer Crash Tests: The Elusive Best Practice | 2. Offset Crash Tests | 3. Guidelines for Crashworthiness Rating Systems

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