ANCAP write-offs hit the road

Crashed-and-trashed brand-new cars are being shipped around Australia as the focus of an aggressive new road safety campaign.

The cars are killed in the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) crash tests that help set the country’s star-rated safety scores but now live again to try and save lives.

They are being displayed at new-car dealerships to give people an up-close-and-personal look at what actually happens in a major crash, without the confrontation that might come from a real-world smash victim.

The six cars still look showroom-fresh, apart from the damage they have sustained in the laboratory crashes, and have become the focus of a holistic education campaign.

“We need some help to get the message across,” says ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin.

“It’s a potential game-changer. It’s putting independently-tested vehicles at the point of sale.”

The first six cars are already on the road and displayed in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, ranging from the Suzuki Swift to the Hyundai Kona. There are plans to add more cars as they are crashed by ANCAP.

Part of the presentation package is a set of fashion-style mannequin passengers created for the job, taking the place of the super-expensive crash-test dummies that take part in the tests.

But the program also includes extensive background briefings for dealership staff, covering both the work of ANCAP and the results of the crash tests.

“I just want to get safer cars on the road. Hopefully people will want to buy them,” says Goodwin.

“When I look at 25 years of ANCAP, there was a lot of resistance by vehicle brands at the start. We can help the car manufacturers, if they want to be helped.

“We need to broaden what we’ve done in the past. We cannot just talk to the car company head offices. We need to engage with dealerships, look at the vehicle fleet and communicate with car buyers.”