Activities of the new car assessment program in the United States

The upgrade of Federal Motor Vehicle Standard (FMVSS) No. 214, Side Impact Protection, to require a dynamic test provides the opportunity for the expansion of NCAP into side-impact protection. Crash conditions for this expansion have been determined and test results from higher speed crashes have been compared to results from FMVSS No. 214 test results. In 1995 and 1996, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducted frontal offset crash tests on passenger cars and light trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles. These data provide the first comparison of an extensive group of U.S. vehicles which have been tested in both full frontal and frontal offset crashes. The results support the position that the full frontal test is a more stringent evaluation of the restraint system performance. However, due to more intrusion, the probability of lower leg injury will be better determined in the offset crashes. By testing in both crash modes, as the Road and Traffic Authority of New South Wales is doing, a more complete assessment of vehicle safety is possible. Two studies on consumer information have recently been completed. The 1995 Customer Satisfaction Survey provides national estimates of the public's attitudes, opinions, and behavior relative to traffic safety. The Transportation Research Board's study Shopping for Safety: Providing Consumer Safety Information broadly examined motor vehicle consumer needs and methods of communicating this information to the public. NHTSA is closely reviewing these studies relative to NCAP and consumer information activities. [A] For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896528.