ANCAP to reassess old models against new safety standards

Australia’s peak crash safety organisation has unveiled plans to apply new rating standards to ageing cars, after figures showed older models were overrepresented in road fatalities.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) wants to adapt the same six-year date stamp to older models that it recently mandated for all new models released in 2018.

Under the current regime, vehicles released before 2018 maintain the same star safety rating they received when new, regardless of age. It means that some vehicles – take the Fiat 500 released in 2008, for example – continue to boast the same five-star score as newer products despite not being tested against the latest safety equipment and crash structure regimes.

ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin would like to see the legacy rating rule abolished to ensure the safest cars on the market are rewarded.

“In the past few years we’ve been concentrating on the brand new vehicles and I think we’ve lost sight on the entire fleet,” he conceded. “The age of vehicles involved in fatalities is rising.

“We just introduced a six-year expiry date on new safety ratings… should that be applied retrospectively now? That’s something that we need to consider; previous protocols developed many years ago meant that legacy ratings would stay in place. Now we should perhaps look at whether we need to look at re-applying the current rating to old-new cars."

ANCAP believes ‘date-stamping’ vehicles can lead to confusion at a consumer level over the safety credentials of a new car. Moreover, it would like to see incentives in place to ensure Australia’s car fleet is as modern and safe as possible.

“We need to look at some incentives to make modern vehicles more affordable and encourage people to get into the newest cars that suit their needs and the newest ones they can afford,” Goodwin said.

In a submission to the Ministerial Inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy this year, ANCAP collated figures on the average age of Australia’s passenger fleet against the average age of vehicles involved in fatality crashes.

“In 2016, vehicles 15 years or older represented 20 per cent of the registered passenger vehicle and SUV fleet, yet were involved in 36 per cent of fatalities. In contrast, vehicles aged five years or less represented 31 per cent of the registered fleet, yet were involved in 12 per cent of fatalities,” the submission said.

“Over the period 2014 to 2016, the average age of the passenger vehicle fleet remained constant at 9.8 years, yet the average age of passenger vehicles involved in occupant fatality crashes increased consistently from 12.5 years in 2014, to 12.9 years in 2015 and 13.1 years in 2016.”

Goodwin said buying incentives would ultimately assist the most at-risk user groups in the event of an accident.

“What we’re seeing is that the age of the Australian car fleet is becoming a problem. Older cars are seriously overrepresented in serious crashes,” he said.

“I’m not talking about classic cars here, I’m talking about very average 1990s to 2000 models that are still on the road in extremely high numbers. The fundamental structure of those vehicles are not likely to protect people very well.

“It’s not as though those vehicles are likely to be involved in more crashes, it’s more around the survivability. If someone else takes you out and you’re driving one of those older cars then your chances of survival are much lower.

“There’s an equality issue here at play… the younger people are generally driving the oldest cars. At the other end we have the oldest people driving the oldest cars as well. Their ability to be able to upgrade is limited and they are likely to be more fragile in the event of a crash.”

Goodwin’s remarks come as figures show the national road toll is rising despite the advent of safer cars.

Along with more fatalities, the AAA Benchmarking Report revealed a 19 per cent increase in severe road injuries compared with the same period in 2013. Cyclist deaths also increased 104 per cent on the corresponding 12 months.