Euro NCAP crash tests to get tougher

Euro NCAP will introduce an all-new regime of testing later this year, bringing two new procedures to assess crash safety and active safety in its bid to improve road safety.

The biggest change is the Belgium-based safety organisation's axing of the offset deformable barrier test that it's been using for the last 23 years.

In its place, a new moving-barrier-to-moving-car frontal impact test will be introduced.

Claimed to better evaluate not only the protection of occupants inside a car, the new test is said to more accurately assess how the car's front-end structures can contribute to injuries.

As well as the new test, Euro NCAP says it will also introduce THOR, which it claims is the world's most advanced male crash test dummy.

The safety body says it's also redesigning it side impact test, to better replicate what is the second most common crash involving deaths or serious injuries.

From later this year, Euro NCAP will include adjustments to the speed and mass of the barrier and also focus on driver protection.

Until now, there's been little research to evaluate the potential interaction between drivers and front seat passengers during a side impact crash.

This, the crash testers hope, will incentivise car-makers to begin fitting centre airbags as standard, to better protect occupants against potentially fatal head clashes.

As well as crash tests, Euro NCAP says it will add new, more challenging test scenarios for autonomous emergency braking systems, includinge tricky turning at crossing tests.

Driver status monitoring tech will also be examined.

Finally, as part of its new 2020 protocols, Euro NCAP says it will focus on what it calls post-crash safety by introducing new rating rules for ease of extraction, electric door handles and new rules governing emergency calls following a collision.