Not just a race for the stars

ROAD safety should be seen as a public health issue and not something based on star ratings from an independent crash test authority, according to Renault’s director of road safety policy.

In Sydney last week, Dr Jean-Yves Le Coz did observe that seven of Renault’s current range had achieved the maximum five stars in European NCAP testing. But he was at pains to insist: "Five stars in NCAP is not a target for us." Rather, road safety was a matter of public health.

Noting that 1.2 million people are killed on the roads every year and another 50 million injured, Dr Le Coz said this figure would rise by more than 60 per cent between 2000 and 2040 – despite the increasing safety of cars.

He forecast that by 2020, road traffic injuries would be the third-largest cause of death in the world behind ischaemic heart disease and unipolar major depression.

By contrast, in 1990 road traffic injuries ranked as the ninth-biggest killer, behind lower respiratory infections (first), diarrhoeal diseases (second) and even measles (eighth).

Why is such a change in rank predicted to occur? Because there is more extensive use of vehicles and the number of kilometres travelled increases with economic growth.

"If you have five stars, the driver has nothing more to do," Dr Le Coz argued, his point being that a five-star rating ensured survival in some 97 per cent of crashes in Europe.

But he added: "I know what a five-star car is. I do not know what a five-star driver or five-star road is."

Despite the gloomy prognosis, Dr Le Coz (left) said there had been great progress in France, where combined efforts of manufacturers, the government and insurers had seen a reduction in fatalities from 8700 to 5000 over a two-year period. (Perhaps drivers had something to do with this as well!) Renault opened its Laboratory of Physiology and Biomechanics in 1954 but it has only been in recent years that the company has achieved international recognition as the maker of some of the safest cars in the world.

The company believes in an integrated approach to road safety. There are three main areas of study – drivers’ behaviour (physical and psychological), road accidentology (the mechanisms of collisions) and the biomechanics of impacts.

Dr Le Coz said the anti-lock braking system (ABS), Brake Assist and ESP (Electronic Stability Program) were the three most important safety features in new cars, while even a simple measure such as sensitive seatbelt force limiters could make a huge difference to saving lives in the event of a crash.