ANCAP has welcomed the Australian Government’s mid-term review of the National Road Safety Strategy, which credits safer cars for progress but shows sharp rises in deaths involving light commercial vehicles, heavy vehicles and motorcycles.
Passenger cars are getting safer, but other vehicles on Australian roads aren’t keeping up. That’s the main finding ANCAP has taken from the Australian Government’s Mid-term Review of the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. The independent safety body has welcomed the review, which credits safer vehicles with helping to reduce road trauma. However, the numbers underneath that praise point somewhere less comfortable.
Safer cars, recognised
The review found that the safety performance of Australia’s light vehicle fleet has improved. ANCAP links that progress to years of pushing for better crash protection and crash prevention technology.
ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg said the review acknowledges the progress made through independent testing, assessment and consumer information. That’s the organisation’s own reading, of course. Still, it’s fair to say star ratings have given buyers a simple way to compare cars, and manufacturers have a reason to chase better scores.
Where the risk is moving
This is where the review gets more interesting. It found fatalities rising much faster in crashes involving vehicles other than passenger cars. Compared with the baseline period, the figures were:
- Motorcycles: fatalities up 28.3%
- Light commercial vehicles: fatalities up by an average of 12.1%
- Heavy vehicles: fatalities up 7.2%
- Passenger cars: fatalities up 0.3%
That near-flat passenger car figure shows what a couple of decades of airbags, stability control and autonomous emergency braking can do. By contrast, the motorcycle number stands out, and it should worry riders and policymakers alike.
Hoorweg said the findings show Australia’s focus on vehicle safety needs to extend beyond passenger cars. She named commercial vans, light and heavy trucks, and motorcycles specifically.
More than regulation
ANCAP is also making the case for its own role. Hoorweg argued that regulation is only one way to improve vehicle safety. In her view, independent assessment can encourage safety technology well before the law requires it.
According to ANCAP, its non-regulatory work pushes manufacturers beyond minimum standards and speeds up the uptake of new safety features. It also says the work uncovers safety failures that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The message ends with a clear request: continued Australian Government support for ANCAP. Hoorweg said that backing is essential for the rest of the strategy’s term and beyond. Nobody should be surprised to see a funding pitch in a statement like this.
A call for better crash data
ANCAP also supports the review’s call for stronger use of data and evidence in setting priorities, investment and performance monitoring. Hoorweg noted that useful crash and vehicle information is already collected across Australia. However, it isn’t gathered consistently or made available nationally.
Bringing that data together, including detail on specific crash scenarios, would show how vehicles perform in real-world crashes. It would also help point interventions to where they would save the most lives.
For those of us who follow safety ratings, the takeaway is simple. Car safety has improved a great deal, and the 0.3% figure shows it. The next test is whether that same scrutiny reaches vans, trucks and motorcycles, where the fatality figures are now rising fastest.
