Euro NCAP publishes test results for active safety in commercial vehicles.

To date, Euro NCAP tests have been mainly performed on passenger cars.  Now, a new series of tests have been carried out by Euro NCAP labs on a range of the best-selling commercial vans on the European market, focusing on assessing the ADAS capabilities of these vans.

Euro NCAP has played an instrumental role in encouraging car manufacturers to include safety systems in their vehicles, but there is a wide gulf between cars and vans in this regard.  Michiel van Ratingen, secretary-general of Euro NCAP says “technology that is now standard on passenger cars is, almost without exception, an option on vans”, meaning that a typical van poses a greater risk with an inattentive driver to other road users than a car would.

As Matthew Avery, Director of Research at Thatcham notes, “Van numbers are continuing to increase significantly, and vans are involved in more accidents that result in fatal injuries to other road users, per mile travelled, than any other type of vehicle on UK roads”, so there are clear benefits to road safety in improving the abilities of vans to avoid collisions.

As a supplier to all 8 of the official Euro NCAP labs, AB Dynamics equipment was used extensively in these tests, with labs using its GST, Soft Car 360, SPT and associated products.  You can see the results and video of the tests here and a playlist of the test videos here.

Jeremy Ash, sales director at AB Dynamics, says “We’ve worked with manufacturers of vans and commercial vehicles for years, but the inclusion of active safety systems on vans has not yet reached levels now seen in passenger vehicles.  With the increasing numbers of vans on our roads, AB Dynamics strongly supports this initiative from Euro NCAP, and we’re proud to be playing a part in the testing.  We look forward to working closely with our customers in this part of the industry to help them produce safer vans.”