The United States Department of Transportation made proposals to overhaul the 5-Star Safety Ratings System for new vehicles of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with the changes expected to provide safer roads for everyone.
The changes will provide customers with more detailed information on the safety of the vehicles that they may be thinking of purchasing. These will also push automobile manufacturers to create vehicles to put a greater focus on safety features and make innovations on technology that could save lives.
"NHTSA's 5-Star Safety Ratings have set the bar on safety since it began in 1978, and today we are raising that bar," said Anthony Foxx, the U.S. Transportation Secretary.
The NHTSA's 5-Star Safety Ratings takes new vehicles out on crash tests and provides scores depending on how well the vehicle protects the occupants during frontal, rollover and side crashes. The results of the tests are compiled to provide a rating of 1 star to 5 stars, with 5 stars being the safest, and the ratings can be seen on window stickers of new vehicles and on the Safercar.gov website of the NHTSA. The current program also includes a list of recommended technology features for safety.
The proposed changes to the 5-Star Safety Ratings system looks to include assessments on crash avoidance and other safety technologies, tests on how well the vehicles protect pedestrians when they are struck, tests for an angled frontal crash, changes to the frontal oblique crash test to spur improvements for rear passenger safety, new kinds of crash test dummies that are more human-like, half-star ratings, and the ability to update the program dynamically in response to the development of new safety technologies.
The proposal signals a shift in mindset of not only measuring the impact of crashes to vehicles and how well passengers are protected, but also seeing on how well accidents can be avoided in the first place.
The overhaul of the NHTSA's 5-Star Safety Ratings system has now been opened for public comment, with the analysis of the comments and the issuance of a final decision by the end of the year. If there would be no delays, the revamped system will be put in place for vehicles of the 2019 model year, and the NHTSA will be launching a consumer awareness campaign regarding the new ratings.
