Global NCAPs 2012 Annual Awards Presented By HRH Prince Michael Of Kent
The first annual Global NCAP awards have been presented by HRH Prince Michael of Kent at a special ceremony in Melaka, Malaysia on May 24th. The awards recognise three categories of achievement in consumer related automobile safety.
The categories and 2012 winners are as follows:
Consumer Champion Award – offered to an organisation promoting consumer information about motor vehicle safety. 2012 Winner – the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in recognition of its creation of the first ever New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) in 1978 and its continued promotion of global vehicle standards.
Individual Achievement Award – offered to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to motor vehicle safety and protection of consumers. 2012 Winner – Joan Claybrook in recognition of her outstanding role in road safety notably as NHTSA Administrator from 1977 to 1981 and the creation of the first NCAP.
Innovation Award – offered to an organisation that has made an outstanding contribution to innovation in motor vehicle safety, technology development, and design. This year’s winner could be Robert Bosch for Electronic Stability Control. 2012 Winner – Robert Bosch GmbH in recognition of its development of crash avoidance technologies, in particular, electronic stability control.
In presenting the awards HRH Prince Michael made the following remarks:
“The winner of the 2012 Consumer Champion Award is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA is the Federal agency in the United States responsible for road safety. Since its establishment in 1970, NHTSA has pioneered many safety initiatives which have contributed significantly to saving lives on American roads. Its Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards provide a framework of regulation. And in 1978 NHTSA was the originator of the world’s first New Car Assessment Programme. These activities have had a significant impact beyond the shores of the United States. The fact we are meeting here is in large part a result of NHTSA’s successful NCAP initiative taken thirty four years ago. Today NHTSA continues to play a leading role in global road safety, supporting the Decade of Action and participating in the UN’s vehicle regulatory process. Recently, for example, it successfully led the adoption of a global technical regulation for electronic stability control. This now makes it far easier for all UN member states to mandate this life saving technology. I am pleased, therefore, to invite Mr Ronald Medford, Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to accept the 2012 Consumer Champion Award.
The winner of the 2012 Individual Achievement Award is Joan Claybrook. Joan has played a leading role in automotive safety in the United States since the 1960s. A close associate of Ralph Nader whose book ‘Unsafe at any Speed’ prompted a new era of consumer protection, she worked in the US Congress helping to draft the first major piece of US automobile safety legislation. Then she served from 1977 to 1981 as Administrator of the NHTSA. Subsequently she became President of Public Citizen, the non-profit consumer rights advocacy group from which she retired in 2008. Whilst NHTSA Administrator Joan realised that crash testing America’s best-selling cars would powerfully stimulate the manufacturers to build safer products. So NHTSA began doing this and the world’s first New Car Assessment Programme was born. So Joan Claybrook can truly be described as the catalyst of all the NCAPs present here today. The US car manufacturers, sometimes fearful of Joan’s steadfast defence of consumer safety, famously called her the ‘Dragon Lady’. So it is rather fitting that in the year of the Dragon I am very pleased to invite Joan Claybrook to accept the Global NCAP’s 2012 Individual Achievement Award.
“As legislators and consumers call for safer vehicles, of course, it is industry that must respond through innovation and investment in new technologies. A first class example has been the development of Electronic Stability Control. In the late 1980s Robert Bosch began working with Mercedes to develop their Electronic Stability Programme. An extension of previous traction control systems to prevent lateral skidding, ESC’s value became all too evident in 1997 when a Swedish journalist drove an A Class Mercedes in a so-called Elke test. In swerving to avoid a replica animal, the A Class dramatically rolled. In response Mercedes recalled 130,000 vehicles and retrofitted them with ESC. Since then the system has become recognised as the most important vehicle safety technology since the seat belt capable of saving tens of thousands of lives. Most significantly it helps to avoid crashes from happening at all. Today ESC is mandatory in all new cars in America, Australia, and the European Union. The Global Plan for the UN Decade of Action recommends universal deployment of ESC by all UN Member States and reaching this by 2020 will contribute significantly to the meeting the Decade’s life-saving goal.
“Of course, all the hard work inventing and developing ESC has been done by one of the world’s most famous engineering companies Robert Bosch. I am very pleased, therefore, to invite Mr Herbert Hemming and Dr Wolfgang Hiller to accept the 2012 Innovation Award on behalf of Robert Bosch.”
The Awards were made at the Annual Meeting of the Global New Car Assessment Programme held in Melaka Malyasia on May 23 -24. The Awards were chosen by the Board of Trustees of Global NCAP which is a UK registered charity. The Trustees of Global NCAP join HRH Prince Michael in extending their congratulations to the winners.
YOUTUBE
