tary general of Euro NCAP, safety has moved on and the biggest strides forward are now being made by using high-tech to prevent ac- cidents from happening rather than mitigat- ing those that have. “Clearly, Dacia have found their market and


they’re sticking to it, but a two-star rating shows little ambition, even for a low-cost product,” he says. Euro NCAP were also keen to point out the


mismatch between products from one brand, saying that comparative safety between ve- hicles is something the organisation wants to focus on as part of its future efforts to ensure that safety isn’t seen as a prestige or luxury feature of high-end cars that is omitted from budget offerings from the same brand.


Putting vans in the spotlight \\\ The NCAPs have also widened their scope to


include active safety features in commercial van tests under new criteria that prioritise crash avoidance and driver assist systems. By doing so, NCAP wants to encourage wider fitment of ADAS on commercial vans, show differences between brands in the sys- tems’ performance and will help fleet opera- tors and business owners to make safer choices. According to EuroNCAP, the use of com-


mercial vans has never been greater or more obvious and the flexibility that is offered by commercial vans makes them a preferred choice for many businesses. According to van Ratingen, active safety


systems exist for vans which can greatly re- duce the likelihood of a collision with other vehicles, or with pedestrians or cyclists. “These technologies are already common- place on passenger cars but much less widespread on vans. Given the millions of vans on Europe’s roads, increasing the active safety systems fitted to commercial vehicles is key to improving safety for all road users.” He went on to say that vehicles in this seg-


ment are generally very poorly equipped with safety systems. Technology that is now stan- dard on passenger cars is, almost without ex- ception, an option on vans. “Manufacturers really don’t make it easy


for people to buy these options and we strug- gled hard to get hold of vans equipped with the systems we wanted to test. In all proba- bility, there are very few vans actually on the road which are as well-equipped as the ones we tested so manufacturers have to start tak- ing the safety of this segment more seriously and fleet buyers should insist on choosing safety options to provide better protection for their drivers and for all road users,” he con- cludes.


Micromobility \\\ Another UK motoring safety organisation, the


Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has just launched a new service for testing powered micromobility products, assuring both the safety performance and handling of the tech- nology in real-world settings. E-scooters, hoverboards and e-skateboards


are currently only legally permitted for use on private land. A key challenge in achieving their widespread rollout is ensuring that they can be safely integrated into the wider trans- port system. On-road trials of shared e-scoot- ers are under way across the country as part of the Department for Transport’s Future of Transport Regulatory Review. In these trial conditions, e-scooters are permitted on pub- lic roads and allowed to mix with other traffic, meaning it is essential that they perform in a safe and reliable manner. According to George Beard, head of new


mobility at TRL, the organisation has designed a set of standardised tests that can be applied


to a variety of powered micromobility prod- ucts. The standardised test methodology cov- ers three key areas, including emergency brake testing, vehicle stability trials and geofencing testing. French insurance company, Baloise, under-


took its own series of e-scooter crash tests with Dynamic Test Center AG in Basle, Switzer- land.


In the first test, an electric scooter travel- ling at its maximum speed of 20km/h collides with a pedestrian dummy. In the second ac- cident, an electric cargo bike carrying child passenger dummies instead of cargo collides with a stationary car at 25km/h. In both cases, the outcome of the collisions


were predictably grim for both the pedestrian and the passengers, all of the dummies hav- ing sustained significant injuries. “In the case of electric cargo bikes, we


want to raise awareness of the dangers that passengers in the cargo box are exposed to,” says Daniel Junker from Baloise. C&VT


2021 /// Climatic & Vibration Testing \\\ 33


Whilst achieving an acceptable score for occupant safety, the Dacia Sandero


Stepway didn’t make the grade for active safety, left; active safety systems are invariably optional extras on vans,


something the NCAP organisations want to change, centre left; e-Scooter and cycle crash testing with stationary


vehicles in Basle, Switzerland, highlighted the dangers faced by both users and


pedestrians, below left and right


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