Launch for European testing of safety of trucks

From 2024, Euro NCAP will start testing the safety of trucks. Initially, there are two areas:

• Safe driving
• Collision avoidance

For Safe Driving, driver assistance systems such as speed assistance and seat belt reminders are evaluated, but also visibility for the driver. Regarding Collision Avoidance, protection systems such as lane keeping and automatic emergency brake (AEB) are tested, both for collisions with unprotected road users and passenger cars.

Euro NCAP (The European New Car Assessment Programme) is a European consumer testing organisation that has successfully crash-tested and provided information on the safety level of passenger cars for 25 years. Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) has been a driving force within Euro NCAP to start safety testing trucks – which we believe can greatly contribute to reducing the number of fatalities on our roads.

Advanced safety systems in trucks – a life-saving factor

– If all heavy trucks in Sweden had these safety systems, seven lives (3-4%) could be saved annually. There is now a safety assessment tool that companies can use when procuring safer truck transports. For companies that procure trucks or transports, Trafikverket recommends setting a minimum level of 4 out of 5 stars, and this could be raised gradually, says Rikard Fredriksson, senior expert on road safety at Trafikverket.

Euro NCAP strives to achieve higher safety standards through voluntary testing, and several manufacturers have already exceeded legal requirements.

– We have had a good collaboration with the Asta Zero test track and the Swedish truck manufacturers, who have also been involved in the work to develop the tests, says Rikard Fredriksson.

Trucks are involved in one in five fatal traffic accidents

Although trucks only account for six percent of the volume of traffic, trucks are involved in one in five fatal road traffic accidents. Although the trucks in most cases do not cause the accident, there are 45 people a year who die in Sweden in traffic accidents involving heavy trucks. In over 90 percent of these, it is the other party who dies, most often in a passenger car. But also about ten unprotected road users die annually (pedestrians, cyclists, mopeds, motorcycles).

In a few years, there will also be crash tests

Another driving factor is the introduction of a European legal requirement for the safety of trucks, but Euro NCAP's goal is to drive trucks to a higher safety standard than legal requirements through voluntary testing, which has been successful for many years with passenger cars and more recently also vans.

The work to develop the tests of heavy trucks continues.

– A second test phase will be launched in 2027, supplementing with tests of systems for driver distraction and fatigue, as well as even more advanced crash avoidance systems, says Rikard Fredriksson.

Thirdly, the plan is for Euro NCAP to introduce crash tests of heavy trucks by 2030, which aim to make the truck fronts "softer" (more yielding) in collisions with cars or vulnerable road users. We want trucks to be safer both for the driver/passengers and for other road users – to make it safer on our roads.