U.S. Department of Transportation Calls to Update NHTSA's Ratings & Testing Procedures

Kuala Lumpur: U.S. Department of Transportation has officially proposed some important changes to the procedure of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) 5-star rating and testing procedures. As reported by the Automotive News, now the NHTSA's rating procedure could also include scores concerned with pedestrian safety as well as the crash avoidance technology.

The proposed change calls for the vehicles to be permitted to get half-star increments for cars and trucks, starting with the 2019 model year. If this proposal is accepted by NHTSA then its safety rating standards could also include features like AEB, BSD, LDW and PDS.

Some of the major changes by the U.S. Department of Transportation include a front oblique crash test developed to simulate certain accidents that causes a large number of fatalities and serious injuries in addition to full frontal tests using a 50% female dummy to evaluate the safety of rear passengers and children specifically. The proposed changes also suggest to include more human-like crash test dummies to evaluate the changes of injuries to the abdomen, lower spine, chest as well as the brain.

In addition, the U.S Department of Transportation has also urged the NHTSA to include a pedestrian 5-star rating that considers that availability and performance of the frontal pedestrian automatic braking besides the rear automatic braking system.

The proposed changes also call for the inclusion of a rating for crash avoidance and advanced tech features (such as forward collision warning, ABS, automatic head beam switching) besides an updated criterion to evaluate vehicle's resistance to rollovers. While speaking to the media persons, the U.S. Transportation Secretary, Anthony Fox has said that 5-star safety ratings of NHTSA has set the bar on safety since its inception in 1978, and today we are raising the bar. The changes give more and better information to the new vehicle shoppers that will help in speeding up the technical innovation that save lives. The number of highway fatalities in the U.S. has increased by 8.1 percent in the first half of 2015 and this is considered as one of the main reason to improve the current safety rating system of NHTSA.