Global NCAP 2018 Awards

Secretary General David Ward presents the Global NCAP Legacy Award to Adrian Hobbs and Richard Lowne who led the development of the Offset Deformable Barrier.

Road Safety Legacy Award – the Transport Research Laboratory

In the early 1990s the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) led the European Experimental Vehicles Committee (EEVC) project to develop a Frontal Impact Test procedure. Two senior TRL experts served on the EEVC Working Group; Richard Lowne as Chairman and Adrian Hobbs as Secretary. Funded by the European Commission, the Working group carried out an extensive programme of crash testing of three different car models to determine the optimal configuration for a new frontal impact test for potential regulatory adoption. The aim was to replicate the modes of energy absorption of real world car to car crashes at an impact speed of 60 km/h or higher. Data showed that such frontal impacts accounted for two third of all serious and fatal crash crashes. The project confirmed that a 40% offset deformable barrier (ODB) gave a very good reproduction of car to car impacts. Subsequently the 40% ODB was included in a European Union Frontal Impact Crash Test Directive applied to new car models from 1st October 1998. This test standard was then adopted by the UN World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (UNECE WP29) as Regulation Number 94 and is now applied by 50 countries worldwide. The ODB test procedure is also a mainstay of independent consumer crash testing carried out by New Car Assessment Programmes. The adoption of the ODB test has made a huge contribution to the reduction of vehicle occupant deaths and will continue to do so as it becomes even more widely applied around the world.

About Global NCAP

Launched in 2011, Global NCAP serves as a platform for cooperation among NCAPs worldwide and to provide financial, technical and advocacy support to new programmes in emerging markets.

Global NCAP is a UK registered charity and its largest sources of funding come from the FIA Foundation and the Bloomberg Philanthropies. It works closely with the Towards Zero Foundation and leads the Stop the Crash Partnership.

Global NCAP has consultative status with the UN (ECOSOC), is a member of the UN Road safety Collaboration and an observer at the UN World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Standards.

In 2016, Global NCAP received the Premier Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for outstanding achievement in vehicle safety.

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