CAR SAFETY: IT’S YOUR CALL

Judging by the reaction to Airlink’s Green Point fly-over stunt, it seems South Africa is split down the middle when it comes to safety. If you’re one of those ‘here, hold my brandy, let’s see how much lower we can fly over Soweto this week’, then rather stop reading right here.

If you’re on the other side, however, and you're and still stunned by what you saw on Saturday and wonder how on earth they could even plan to fly sixty tons forty feet over fifty-five thousand hapless souls at 280 km/h (think about that for a second), then you may find the rest of this story worth your while. Especially if you’re buying any cars anytime soon.

I was tapping my heels waiting for this morning’s Automobile Association and Global NCAP Forum for Safer Mobility, part of the broader Safety 2026 World Conference on Injury Prevention. Quite an anomaly, being a five minute walk from Saturday’s fiasco stadium. Anyway, I started chatting to an elegant lady in the lobby.

I noticed her name tag that Meera Naran is with Global NCAP. So I asked what she does there. A brand ambassador for New Car Assessment Programme, Meera’s story is tragic as much as it’s a triumph. Meera lost her son, Dev in a dreadful accident on the M6 freeway in England. Stricken with grief, she focussed fully on preventing more tragic smashes. 

Meera’s Smart Motorway Reform Campaign held transport authorities accountable for allowing unsafe vehicles on British roads. To cut a long story short, Meera’s efforts went on to secure UK government backing for a major road safety action plan around the British Highway Code. 

Her extraordinary contributions earned her a MBE, which Meera dedicated to the recently promulgated Dev's Law. Named after Meera’s lost son, it enforces standard fitment of autonomous emergency braking among other advanced safety tech on all new vehicles sold in the UK. Dev’s Law will save thousands of lives on British roads.

Back to the Global NCAP Forum for Safer Mobility. The conference brought together experts from government, the motor industry, the AA, FIA and Global NCAP and others. Like Meera achieved in the UK, all seek to ensure minimum safety specification standards be applied to all new cars sold in South Africa.

While Government claims to continually upgrade minimum standards, most believe that the current specification is simply is not good enough. Only two front airbags and ABS are mandatory. Officials point out that roll-over mitigation was recently enforced in minibus taxis. But they admit to being slow in keeping up with fast changing trends. 

Government’s upcoming Upgraded Specifications Amendment will however allegedly imminently close the gap to global car safety standards with improved regulations. They call for at least four airbags, electronic stability control and minimum side, rear and steering impact measures to be fitted on all new cars sold in SA, with a little luck, within a year from now. Much better, too.

Until then, however, many South African models’ safety specifications remain woefully inadequate. Others are sold well short of their advertised overseas safety standards. In other words, to keep prices down, several crucial safety features like airbags, are omitted on some South African new cars. And nobody tells you that, either.

To that end, the AA and Global NCAP were delighted to whip the covers off the updated and re-crash tested Toyota Starlet. Having scored a zero rating in its relatively recent first test, Toyota urgently subjected the Starlet to a massive safety upgrade, including adding four more airbags and a structural remake. 

The updated car now scores a four star safety rating. It can be taken that the same applies to Starlet’s Suzuki Baleno sibling. This outcome is also a certain feather in the AA and Global NCAP’s cap, considering that  these changes are directly attributable to its ongoing Safer Cars for Africa crash testing schedule. 

Other significant road safety concerns in South Africa and on the continent, include a high proportion of pedestrian road accident deaths and the need for better motorcycle rider protection via minimum helmet and clothing specifications. Are you listening Sixty60 and the rest of you running huge fleets of riders?

In conclusion, there was consensus that more must be done to educate the public on the importance of car safety. Some suggest punitive insurance premiums be applied to any car lacking minimum safety standards. Others asked if car hire companies made it clear that identical local cars lack much of what tourists take for granted back home.

So, taking that as a cue, if you’re considering a new car purchase, for you, your teenage kid, wife, parent, staff member or whoever, do you have any idea what that car’s real safety specification is? Is it really the four or five star car you believe it is? So being, does the local car have all the specification that makes it as safe as you are led to believe?

It’s your life, and the lives of your loved ones that matter most. It’s what Meera Naran fought so hard to make happen in the UK, because the unthinkable did happen to her. So make sure that any car you buy is the safest option. Before any fancy screen, mag wheels or maintenance plan. And no matter what the cost

Still want me to hold that brandy? – Michele Lupini