EURO NCAP details new testing for heavy-truck safety rating

New tests for a Truck Safe rating scheme aim to emulate real-world collisions and encourage OEMs to fit collision avoidance technologies and improve driver vision.

Euro NCAP has revealed the elements it is considering as part of an upcoming Truck Safe rating, and how it intends to test and benchmark truck performance. The announcement was made to an audience of international road safety experts at the NCAP24 World Congress in Munich, Germany, in April. The action is intended to mitigate heavy trucks' impact on road safety. The organization cited data showing that trucks are involved in almost 15% of all EU road fatalities but represent only 3% of vehicles on Europe's roads.

Euro NCAP says the future rating scheme is designed to go further and faster than current EU truck safety regulations. The organization's goal is to drive innovation and hasten the adoption of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and lane support systems (LSS), while balancing the needs of the different commercial-vehicle sectors across Europe.