Washington D.C. — 35 years ago the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began publishing crash test results in an effort to use the marketplace to bring about safer and better performing vehicles. “We reasoned that if consumers knew that one car was demonstrably safer than another, consumers would vote with their dollars for the safer vehicle that that would put enormous pressure on the car companies to bring about safer and better performing cars,” said Jack Gillis, CFA’s Director of Public Affairs and author of The Car Book, published in cooperation with the Center for Auto Safety. Gillis was part of the original NCAP program and managed the publication of the first edition of The Car Book which was originally published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1980 under the direction of Joan Claybrook who had been appointed Administrator by President Jimmy Carter.
At the time the car makers fought against the crash test program and were vehemently opposed to publishing crash test results. They were successful in getting the Reagan Administration to cancel any further publication of The Car Book and the crash test results it contained. Gillis and the Center for Auto Safety kept the publication alive and for the past 35 years, exclusively for many, many years, The Car Book continued to publish crash test results, enabling American car buyers to make an informed and safe automobile choice.
After initially discrediting the program, the car makers finally realized that safety was important to consumers and it did sell cars. As such, they began to compete on the safety front, gradually improving the crash test performance of vehicles across the board. With much prodding, the NHTSA developed the 5-star rating program designed to provide consumers with easy access to crash test results. Unfortunately, the 5-star program did not keep up with the progress car makers were making in terms of safety performance. In fact, recently the vast majority of vehicles all get a 5-star rating making it impossible for car buyers to select the safest cars.
“The good news is that this new program will not only address the problem car buyers have in selecting the safest of the new cars, but will greatly expand the factors that go into rating a car for safety,” said Gillis.
In reviewing the government’s proposal, Gillis made the following observations:
- With improved dummies, the ability of the car to protect the occupant will be more precisely measured which will put enormous pressure on the manufacturers to fine-tune their vehicles for safety.
- By factoring in critically important crash avoidance technology, and rating that technology for effectiveness, the program will significantly reduce the chances of highly rated cars getting into a life threatening accident.
- Changing the direction of the crash test to an oblique angle will more accurately represent a typical accident situation as well as further test the vehicle’s ability to protect the occupant.
- Rating the vehicle’s ability to avoid injuries incurred by pedestrians will significantly reduce the nearly 5,000 pedestrian deaths each year.
“All of this adds up to a significant change in how vehicles will be rated and dramatically increase pressure on the manufacturers to compete in an area car buyers really care about…safety”, said Gillis. The only downside of the program is that it won’t be implemented until the 2019 model year. “Our hope is that after a comment period, NHTSA will speed up the implementation of this life-saving new rating system. The dummies are designed, the test protocols established and the rating factors identified—there’s little reason to hold up implementation for 3 years,” added Gillis.
Contact: Jack Gillis, 202-737-0766
CFA is an association of more than 250 nonprofit consumer groups that was founded in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy and education.