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Euro NCAP's New Child Protection Rating and the Latest Test Results in Athens

On November 27th, 2003, Euro NCAP announced the results for the Renault Scenic and the VW Touran. Both cars achieved the coveted five stars for occupant protection in Europe’s leading independent crash tests.

Other crashworthiness results for family cars, small family cars, super-minis, 4X4’s, large MPV’s (i.e. SUVs), and small MPV’s were launched at a press conference in Athens co-hosted by Euro NCAP, ELPA and the FIA Foundation.

Also announced were the results for the first 8 cars tested to the new child protection rating. The Ford C-MAX is the first car to be awarded four stars for protecting child passengers.

Apart from Audi and Mazda, all of the manufacturers met the requirements of Euro NCAP’s new seat belt reminder protocol. Euro NCAP’s star rating is based on occupants being ‘belted’, thus seat belt reminder systems are vitally important. All of the safety gains achieved by Euro NCAP over recent years would be completely wasted if car occupants don’t buckle up before every journey.

Max Mosley, Euro NCAP Chairman and FIA President said: “The latest cars tested by Euro NCAP demonstrate very high levels of occupant safety, giving Europe’s car buyers a wider range of safer models than ever before.

     “Unfortunately, whilst occupant protection continues to improve the number of manufactures scoring only one or two stars for pedestrian protection is still very disappointing. Euro NCAP urges all manufacturers to redouble their efforts in addressing pedestrian safety.

     “Euro NCAP’s latest tests are particularly significant because for the first time we give cars a specific rating for the protection given to children. We have taken this step to focus the attention of manufacturers and consumers on this vital aspect of road safety.”

Summary of Results

David Jamieson, UK Transport Minister said: "I am pleased that scoring 4 stars for occupant protection is now commonplace. However, I am disappointed again with the results on pedestrian protection with several cars in this phase being awarded only 1 star. It is very important that pedestrian scores start to improve before new European standards begin to take effect in 2005".

Wilfried Klanner, Testing and Technical Manager for the ADAC said: “All vehicles tested in Euro NCAP Phase 13 show good performance in occupant protection. 8 models achieve 4 stars, and the 2 small MPVs; Renault’s Scenic and Volkswagen’s Touran come up to the best mark of 5 stars. For the first time also child protection was rated. Here most cars reach 3 stars. This should be a clear message to the manufacturers to improve child safety.”

Vassilis Despotopoulos, ELPA President said: “It is with great pleasure that we host in Greece the first presentation of the Euro NCAP latest crash tests results for 10 car models.

     “The crash tests of the European New Car Assessment Program, partner of the FIA Foundation, are really important for the active and passive safety.

     “Studying the detailed analysis of the results for the sectors that are controlled, we can clearly see the continuous efforts of manufacturers for the improvement of the car safety standards, concerning car passengers, - emphasizing on children - and also pedestrians.

     “The Euro NCAP rating system with stars of different colours for each category starts to be widely known and is fairly the best advertisement for car manufacturers that achieve the five star status.

     “This launch in Athens has a special importance for our country, where the problems related to the road safety are very serious and we hope that this presentation will be a step forward and create awareness on the matter to all those concerned.“

Guido Adriaenssens, ICRT Chief Executive said: “The European consumer organisations, represented by ICRT in Euro NCAP, welcome the new child protection rating.  This is the first time that consumers have had such clear information about the measures car manufacturers have taken to protect children. Despite marketing 'family cars' vehicle manufacturers have, in the past, paid little attention to child protection. ICRT believes that safe 'family cars' need to protect all members of the family, whatever their ages.
     ” It is notable that all the cars in this group achieve 4 or 5 stars cars for adult protection and that this is the first launch where there have been no unacceptable injury risks (indicated by red or brown body parts in the coloured men that are published with the results). The progress that has been made for the protection of adult occupants has sadly not been matched by an equivalent increase in the protection for pedestrians. With each year that passes, it is becoming harder for manufacturers to defend this lack of attention to pedestrian protection.

     ”Even for the car occupants, there are still areas that need to be addressed, like whiplash protection and luggage retention. It is hoped that in the near future Euro NCAP is able to incorporate these in its protocols in order to encourage car manufacturers to do better than the bare minimum that is required by the law.”