Implementing a car safety programme
24 Aug 2023 5 mins Download PDF
Implementing a car safety programme
Why in the News?
The Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) was rolled out by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to create a rating system indicating the safety of cars in a collision and is planned to come into effect from October 1, 2023.
What is Bharat NCAP?
- An indigenous star-rating system for crash testing cars.
- Based on the crash testing results, vehicles will be assigned between one to five stars in correspondence to their safety in a collision.
- Objective of the programme:
- To help consumers make an informed decision before purchasing a car, thereby spurring demand for safer cars.
- India sees nearly 1.5 lakh road fatalities in a year, accounting for 10% of deaths due to road crashes globally with only 1% of the world’s vehicles.
- According to a World Bank study, road crashes are estimated to cost the Indian economy between 5 to 7% of GDP a year.
- Under the Bharat NCAP, cars voluntarily nominated by automobile manufacturers will be crash tested as per protocols laid down in the soon-to-be-published Automotive Industry Standard 197.
- The rating system shall be voluntary for adoption by automobile companies, but in certain cases such as it becomes mandatory:
- For a base model of a popular variant (minimum clocked sale of 30,000 units)
- When the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recommends a model for testing based on market feedback or in the interest of public safety
- The programme is applicable to passenger vehicles with not more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s seat with gross vehicle weight not exceeding 3,500 kgs.
- Cars will be assigned a rating between one star to five stars after being evaluated on three parameters
- Adult occupant protection
- Child occupant protection
- Safety assist technologies present in the car.
- The launch of the Bharat NCAP is another step to enhance road safety regulations rolled out in the past years such as mandatory dual front airbags, anti-lock braking system, seatbelt reminder and reverse parking sensors.
How has Bharat NCAP evolved?
- It has been modelled on the lines of Global NCAP, a project of the U.K.-based NGO, Towards Zero Foundation that launched a Safer Cars for India campaign in 2014.
- It serves as a platform for co-operation among new car assessment programmes worldwide, including countries such as the U.S. which has the world’s oldest crash testing regime since 1978.
- In 2018, Tata achieved India’s first 5-star cars.
- Now there is increased competition among manufacturers to obtain four and five- star results and using ratings in their marketing. This has also led to a sharp fall in the number of zero- star models in the Indian market.
Way forward:
- India needs to develop its crash testing capabilities and knowledge expertise for the meaningful implementation of Bharat NCAP programme
- For instance, software system wired to the dummies placed inside cars can be used to assess the nature and extent of injuries to analyse scores.
- India needs to align Bharat NCAP with global standards by expanding testing parameters.
- For instance, the U.S. NCAP also includes a roll-over test which tests whether a vehicle is vulnerable to tipping up on the road in a severe manoeuvre.
- Similarly, Japan’s NCAP covers
- electric shock protection performance after a collision
- performance of neck injury protection in a rear end collision
- passenger seat belt reminder evaluation
- evaluation of pedestrian protection technologies apart from preventive safety performance such as autonomous emergency braking system
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