Abstract
The pedestrian-vehicle traffic accident is a globally recognized safety concern.
In Korea, 36.2% of all pedestrian-vehicle accidents in 2008 resulted in fatalities, which is a very high level for an OECD country.
In recent years, studies of approaches to pedestrian protection in the event of vehicle accidents have been active, and as a result, UN/ECE/WP29 established the Global Technical Regulation (GTR) for pedestrian safety in November 2008.
GTR is expected to significantly reduce injuries to pedestrians in the event of frontal impacts.
To keep pace with GTR No. 9, the Korean government established domestic regulations on pedestrian protection on December 8, 2008, which will take effect on January 1, 2013.
On the other hand, The Korean New Car Assessment Program (KNCAP) has been carried out by the Korean Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) since 1999. This program encourages vehicle manufacturers to release safer cars to the domestic market.
Pedestrian protection evaluation has been a part of KNCAP since 2007. This evaluation is based on the KNCAP pedestrian safety protocol, which in turn was based on GTR no.9.
In this paper, an evaluation and testing method to determine KNCAP pedestrian safety will be introduced, and the test results for KNCAP pedestrian safety will be released.
From 2007 to 2010, a total of 34 vehicles were tested by KNCAP for pedestrian safety. As a result, 5 vehicles obtained only 1 star, 12 vehicles obtained 2 stars, and most vehicles (15) obtained 3 stars.
For this year, a total of 12 vehicles were evaluated by KNCAP for pedestrian protection, from four domestic and three foreign vehicle manufacturers. Although 2 vehicles evaluated this year were the first to obtain 4 stars, almost all other vehicles still obtained 3 stars or less.
In the near future, the Korean government will start to study how to evaluate vehicles equipped with an active system (such as active hood lifting), and a new pedestrian legform impactor called Flex-PLi.
Keywords: Korean New Car Assessment Program (KNCAP), Global Technical Regulation (GTR), Pedestrian protection, Korean Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs (MLTM)