Call for worldwide safety standards

14 April 2015

UNECE and Global NCAP call on motor manufacturers to democratize safety for all cars worldwide by 2020.

Tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries could be avoided each year in the world if all countries would apply the safety standards outlined in the UN regulations developed by the World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. This was the conclusion of the study recently released by the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP) which showed that millions of new cars sold in middle and low income countries fail to meet the UN’s basic front and side crash tests.

In order to further raise awareness of this situation, UNECE and Global NCAP are displaying two crashed cars at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva this week, on the occasion of the 66th session of the Economic Commission for Europe.

After a frontal impact test at 64 km/h, one car scores zero stars, with a very serious risk of fatal injury while the other achieves five stars, which provides a high level of occupant protection. The two cars illustrate the importance that crash tests play in ensuring road safety and the different levels of safety between cars sold in emerging markets and in advanced economies.

The Global NCAP report Democratising Car Safety: Road Map for Safer Cars 2020 is available in eReader and PDF formats here.