Find out who survives: ANCAP gets real with vehicle safety
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
New car safety ratings are a constantly shifting goal - a car that scored 5 stars in a new car assessment test such as Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) a few years ago, probably wouldn't get close to a 5 star rating in today's tests.
This is thanks to rapid advances in safety and accident prevention technology and the combination of both consumer demand and government legislation to incorporate such features as standard.
But according to Australian independent safety authority ANCAP (Australian New Car Assessment Program), after many years seeing the number of lives lost on our roads decrease, this trend has worryingly reversed and the number of Australians and New Zealanders dying on the roads is increasing.
This is something that ANCAP research has shown the age and relative safety of a vehicle is a likely contributor to.
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The sensible advice for purchasing a car is to buy the safest one you can afford (eg, a lower spec newer car will have comparatively better safety than a higher-spec older one, simply by virtue of the fact that it is newer), as opposed to our natural inclination to buy the fastest, sexiest or most luxurious one we can afford.
The influx of used imports in the 1990s gave Kiwi drivers access to a vast range of vehicles with high levels of equipment, but the net result has been an increase of the average age of our national fleet, meaning we were - and largely still are - very much buying older, higher-spec cars.
To raise awareness of this problem, ANCAP has launched new awareness campaign encouraging community conversation and consideration of safer vehicle choices.
The 'Safer Vehicle Choices Save Lives' campaign highlights the different crash outcomes between occupants of older vehicles and more modern vehicles.
A series of videos show the parallel lives of two people - Anne, a student nurse who drives a 1998 Toyota Corolla handed down to her from her grandmother and Michael a middle-aged accountant who drives a 2015 Corolla.
The videos starkly shift from their morning rituals once they step into their respective cars and they find themselves facing off in a crash test facility.
Needless to say, the video doesn't end well for Anne (mercifully by now represented by a crash test dummy), while the Michael dummy fares far better in his newer Corolla.
The video ends with the statement 'Find out who survives' to drive people to the ANCAP website for more information, but - spoiler alert - it really is a forgone conclusion if you have watched the video.
The crash test between the two Corollas was actually carried out last year, but the new campaign combines footage from that with lives of people (well, actors) to drive the point home.
'This is the first campaign of its kind, where the vehicle is profiled as being the life-saving factor in a crash,' said ANCAP Chief Executive, Mr James Goodwin.
'Many road safety campaigns have tended to focus on behavioural aspects such as speed, fatigue, drink driving and enforcement. They remain vital, however this campaign highlights the importance of choosing a safer vehicle.
'A mistake on the road – whether it be yours or someone else's – can be fatal, so the campaign asks the community to consider how safe the vehicle is that they, or their family, are driving.
'Too often people say the older car is safer and stronger. It is quite clear that is not the case.'