Abstract
As a major Australian motoring organisation the RACV sees one of its responsibilities as informing its 1.2 million members on the important consumer issue of vehicle safety. The RACV is involved in a number of prominent occupant protection projects including the Australian New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). NCAP, funded and managed by motoring associations and road authorities around Australia, commenced in 1992. The program provides consumers with information on the relative occupant protection performance of popular vehicles and enables the safety of the local vehicle fleet to be compared with other international fleets, particularly that in the United States. The program has now tested and published the frontal crash occupant protection levels of almost three quarters of the passenger cars available on the Australian market. It has achieved a high level of consumer awareness from extensive media coverage of launches of results. While manufacturers have recently improved the frontal crash test performance of vehicles significantly, considerable gains are still possible. The program will continue to encourage the introduction of world best practice in vehicle occupant protection levels for Australian consumers.