India leads the world in an unfortunate metric: the number of lives lost in road crashes per year. Each year we lose around 1.5 lac fellow countrymen. Currently, we account for 11% of global deaths in road crashes even though we only have 1% of the world’s vehicles!
However, this does not mean that we are not making any progress. Especially, when it comes to car safety.
The Indian car buyer evolving. Earlier, Indians bought a car based on mileage, after-sales service, multimedia systems, accessories, etc. Now, a positive new trend has come up. Car buyers are actively looking for a safer car.
Fortunately, the carmakers have also picked up on this trend. In the last few years, we have seen a large number of cars being launched with a “4-star or 5-star safety” rating. In fact, some Indian manufacturers have taken up safety as their Unique Selling Point (USP)!
For car buyers, this is a wonderful paradigm shift in the market. We now have a bunch of “safer” cars. The Indian government has also announced a home-grown Bharat NCAP.
But, is getting a car with a high NCAP rating enough for your safety?
The answer to that question is No.
Just buying a car with a high NCAP rating will not guarantee your safety in crashes.
To understand why we need to understand what NCAP safety ratings mean.
What does an NCAP rating mean?
Car safety ratings were introduced in the 1970s as a part of the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US.
The purpose of these ratings was to encourage both car manufacturers and buyers toward safer vehicles. This NCAP rating model was later adopted in Europe (Euro NCAP), Australia (ANCAP), Southeast Asia (ASEAN NCAP), Japan (JNCAP), and Latin America (LATIN-NCAP). All “NCAP” testing agencies are independent authorities. Even though car manufacturers are encouraged to send their cars for testing, in most scenarios the agencies purchase the cars from showrooms.
Car safety ratings are given on “crash test performance”.
A crash test involves impacting a car against a deformable barrier or a pole. Each aspect of a car’s performance is graded using a point score system. The more the points, the higher the score.
A 5-star safety rating indicates that a vehicle is well equipped to handle a crash as per the test parameters. You can check out a sample crash test here.
With the advent of technology, the NCAPs also included the performance of active safety features such as ABS, ESP, traction control, etc. For e.g., the EURO NCAP gives a 5-star safety rating to cars that have shown “Overall excellent performance in crash protection and well equipped with comprehensive and robust crash avoidance technology”. You can read all about the EURO NCAP and its ratings here.
So, all you need is to get a car with a high NCAP rating to be safe on the roads. Seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?
It’s not that simple.
A high NCAP safety rating indicates that the car has done well in the respective crash test.
However, crash tests themselves have some limitations!
Limitations of an NCAP crash test
Crash tests do not cover all real-world scenarios
The first and perhaps the biggest limitation of a crash test is the test itself. This is what the EURO NCAP says about their tests:
“These tests represent, in a simplified way, important real-life accident scenarios that could result in injured or killed car occupants or other road users. While a safety rating can never fully capture the complexity of the real world..”
Crash tests are designed to simulate important and common real-world crash scenarios. For e.g. the front of a car hitting a tree or a pole. However, the tests are conducted under controlled conditions in a lab. As someone who has studied and investigated thousands of car crashes, I can assure you that there is nothing “controlled” in a real-world car crash. Things can get out of hand in countless ways.
In a crash test, a car is made to hit a wall at a 0-degree angle and on a flat surface. However, in an actual car crash, a car may impact the wall at any angle and on a surface with many irregularities. The car will surely not perform and behave as you see in a crash test video. I have studied only a handful of crashes in which the parameters were similar to that of a crash test.
Those who designed the NCAP program are no dummies though. They are aware of the complexity of a real-world crash. As with any other engineering design, there is always a margin of safety while designing the crash tests. NCAP ratings try to do their best to capture the real-world irregularities in their ratings. However, it is just not possible to have a crash test for all the infinite ways a car crash occurs.
Crash test speeds
Crash tests are done at a pre-decided speed. This speed is usually 56 kmph or 64 kmph for frontal impacts and around 30 kmph for a side impact. The speeds are chosen by studying the crash speeds in real-world crashes.
Speed is an important factor while determining the severity of a crash. Higher the speed, the more severe the crash.
The relation between speed and injury severity is not linear. In other words, a crash occurring at 75 kmph could be many times worse than a crash occurring at 64 kmph.
That is why a crash at 70 or 80 kmph may not give the same 5-star performance as per the tests.
Crash compatibility
Crash compatibility is perhaps the most important factor in a crash. Two colliding vehicles are said to be compatible if they have similar height and weight configurations.
For e.g. a hatchback and a sedan having a head-on collision are quite compatible as they have similar heights and weights. But the same hatchback impacting a truck or a bus has a major incompatibility issue.
A crash test simulates a collision between two cars having similar weight and height. The ratings do not apply to incompatible crash scenarios such as a car impacting a truck.
This creates a huge limitation for NCAP ratings. A quick look at the road will show you the incompatibilities we have on our Indian roads. Cars are highly likely to collide with a bus or a truck or an even bigger car. In such collisions, you may not get the same results you get in a crash test. Build quality does not matter much in incompatible crashes.
The above were the technical limitations of the NCAP test. There is one more limitation that every buyer must consider…
NCAP ratings also depend on how you use the car.
How you use the car plays a huge role in deciding a car’s safety. Allow me to explain.
Lack of knowledge of how the car’s features work
you must have heard of the Anti-lock Braking System or ABS. It is a crash avoidance feature that gives you control over the vehicle while braking. However, I have come across many people complaining that their vehicle crashed even though it was equipped with ABS.
Although high-speed crashes can still occur with ABS installed, the most common reason why an ABS does not work in crashes is simply that the driver didn’t apply the brakes! Most people, and sadly even some car dealers, are not aware that ABS is designed only to give you steering control in hard braking scenarios by preventing the locking of your tires. You have to apply the brakes for the ABS to work!
This lack of knowledge also applies to other features such as the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and even airbags. Modern cars are equipped with tons of such features that many of us are not fully aware of. I urge all car buyers to learn about the working and usage of all the features present in their vehicles.
Carelessness or overconfidence of car owners
I have come across many car owners who believe that their 5-star NCAP-rated car will save them no matter what they do. They believe that the safety rating permits them to drive as fast and reckless as they want. The truth is that no safety technology will save you from you.
As I mentioned earlier, crash tests are conducted at a set speed, usually at 64 kmph. Go any higher and the chances of severe injuries increase exponentially as the car may not be equipped to handle high speeds.
Speed is not the only way overconfidence is displayed. If you observe crash tests closely, you will see that all the occupants in the car (both front and rear) are wearing seat belts. Wearing a seat belt might seem quite a nominal thing to do, but you would be surprised how many people don’t wear seat belts. Most people might wear seat belts in cities to avoid a challan, but seat belt usage drops considerably once people reach highways. Naturally, a non-belted occupant is much more likely to sustain severe injuries, even in a crash at lower speeds.
When I asked the reason why a belt is not worn, most people replied that the 2 or 6 or million airbags in their car will save them! But, that is not the case
Airbags are a tricky topic as most people are misinformed on how they work. That is why I have written a detailed article on why airbags may save you all the time.
Child safety is often ignored
One last point I would like to add is regarding child safety. NCAP safety ratings also rate a car on how well it protects children.
What you need to know is that child safety ratings for a car are given assuming that the child is seated in a secure child car seat, not on somebody’s lap. If you are not aware of what child car seats are, I have covered them in detail here.
A final note
This article may have made you skeptical about car safety ratings. However, that was not my intention. I have just tried to share some limitations of the safety ratings.
It is my personal and professional opinion that the NCAP safety ratings are the best guide you currently have for judging a car’s safety. I consider a higher NCAP rating as one of the “must-have” car safety features.
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