Euro NCAP starts rating crash safety of heavy trucks

Heavy goods vehicles (HGV), increasingly seen on European roads, still represent only 3% of the vehicles but are involved in almost 15% of all EU road fatalities. That’s the main reason why Euro NCAP starts (crash-)testing heavy trucks this autumn to give them a bronze, silver, or gold safety rating.

These ratings focus at the start on systems for avoiding deadly crashes involving vulnerable road users in cities and car occupants on highways, such as automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping, indirect vision by cameras, or driver monitoring. The ultimate goal is achieving ‘Vision Zero,’ the EU’s strategy to achieve zero road fatalities by 2050.

After cars and vans, the trucks

The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) is a voluntary vehicle safety rating system created in 1996 by the Swedish Road Administration, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), and European consumer organizations.

Later, several other governmental institutions from Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and mobility organizations joined, like ADAS in Germany or Touring in Belgium. Based in Louvain, Belgium, it’s mostly known for its five-star ratings of passenger car safety.

Since 2021, Euro NCAP has added safety ratings for vans or ‘light commercial vehicles’ (LCVs) under 3.5 tons. From 2023, more detailed LCV testing and assessment protocols were applied, focusing more on Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to avoid crashes.

While commercial vans do not necessarily have a higher crash rate than other motor vehicles, crashes involving vans tend to be more severe for their opponent vehicles. Casualties comprise around four percent of total fatal or seriously injured vehicle occupant casualties.

More fatalities with heavy trucks

The same is true for heavier trucks, mostly with deadly consequences, when they crash into a traffic jam with cars on highways, for instance, or come in contact with vulnerable road users (VRU), like pedestrians or cyclists in a city environment.

But here, they cause a mere 15% of all road fatalities in Europe, most in passenger cars and vans (54%) and among vulnerable road users (34%), while the truck driver himself is better protected if only because of the mass of his vehicle. 11% are killed in those crashes.

Euro NCAP aims to progress toward best-practice safety in heavy trucks rather than just meeting minimum standards. The first vehicles scheduled to be tested are the DAF XF, Iveco S-WAY, MAN TGX, Mercedes-Benz Trucks Actros, Renault Trucks T, Scania R-series, and Volvo FH.

For LCVs, the first focus will be on systems to avoid deadly crashes, like automatic emergency braking (AEB), in different circumstances and with different road users (other trucks or cars, pedestrians, or cyclists). Other tests involve visibility from the truck’s cabin while maneuvering, directly with blind spot mirrors or indirectly with cameras.

The test will be conducted in Euro NCAP’s six test centers, Asta Zero (Sweden), Bast (Germany), CSI (Italy), DEKRA (Germany), HORIBA MIRA (UK) or UTAC (France).

The first Truck Safety ratings will be announced on 20 November 2024 at an event in collaboration hosted by HORIBA MIRA in the UK. Later, more safety systems are expected to be included in the test scheme.

“Euro NCAP’s Truck Safe rating scheme is a first for the sector and will enable all stakeholders in the freight industry to identify and assess the safety level of trucks,” says Michiel van Ratingen, Secretary General of Euro NCAP.

“Not only will this deliver enhanced safety for drivers but also create financial and strategic opportunities for those operators that invest in the safest vehicles, making the scheme attractive to insurers, shippers, haulers, and truck makers. The safest vehicle will also prove to be the most profitable.”

“In creating a safety market, Euro NCAP aims to encourage manufacturers and suppliers to innovate, further increasing the safety benefits of the scheme as the ratings evolve. We can reach Vision Zero by working with road authorities and all actors in the heavy vehicle industry.”