NHTSA Plans to Overhaul Crash Testing Methods

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed major changes in the way it conducts crash tests and rates the results.

The new system would make it virtually impossible for any current top-rated vehicle to retain its five-star status. 

The 195-page proposal would take effect with 2019 model-year vehicles. It would retain the five-star safety ratings the agency introduced 37 years ago but expand them with half-star increments.

NHTSA proposes to base its findings on data collected from two types of advanced test dummies, a new oblique front crash test and evaluations of a vehicle’s pedestrian protection. The agency also would introduce a “crash avoidance” rating that considers the contribution of such features as forward collision warning, automatic braking, blind-spot detection, lane departure warning and automatic headlamp beam controls.

Finally, NHTSA would revise the curve it uses to assess a vehicle’s rollover risk and overall crashworthiness score. The new curve would credit vehicles equipped with electronic stability control systems that reduce the risk of rollover.

The agency’s proposed new oblique crash test is different from the partial offset crash protocol introduced in 2012 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The IIHS procedure is a head-on crash but requires the left front corner of the vehicle to absorb the entire energy of a 40 mph impact.

NHTSA’s 56-mph oblique test would focus on occupant injuries during frontal crashes that occur at angles as great as 30°. NHTSA says such impacts produce about the same overall number of injuries and fatalities as head-on impacts. But they generate a much broader range of injuries to virtually every body region.

The agency’s proposed updates to its so-called New Car Assessment Program reflect comments collected in 2013 from the industry, researchers and safety advocates. The plan also borrows from—and sometimes aligns with—safety test protocols used in other markets.

NHTSA says it will collect comments about today’s proposal for 60 days before finalizing the NCAP upgrade.