Euro NCAP, the voluntary vehicle safety programme, has released updated ratings for 18 commercial vans. The vans’ ‘active’ crash avoidance systems were tested against tougher new protocols, resulting in a variety of safety awards from ‘Gold’ through to ‘Not Recommended’.

Matthew Avery of Euro NCAP accredited testing centre, Thatcham Research, commented, “Impact severity tends to be higher in vans than in passenger vehicle, which is why Euro NCAP’s rating is focused on the performance of safety technologies that avoid or mitigate crashes. This latest set of results demonstrates that manufacturers are responding positively and it’s of note that a very popular commercial van, the Ford Transit, secured a ‘Gold’ rating. However, the fitment of crash avoidance technology seen on vans has some way to go before gaining parity with the high levels of standard fitment we enjoy on cars today.”

Euro NCAP also announced that it will soon introduce a rating scheme for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs). Mathew says, “This is great news for road safety. HGVs make up a very small percentage of the fleet, but their contribution to Killed and Seriously Injured statistics is disproportionately high. Although fitment of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) to HGVs has been mandatory since 2015, the new rating will drive best practice with an urgent focus on HGVs not only matching, but exceeding, the performance levels of AEB on passenger vehicles.” He added, “The rating will also assess and drive fitment of the full suite of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and will exceed new EU ‘General Safety Regulation 2’ requirements.”