Taking the lead in safety

YOU wouldn't have believedthat an epochal event for theAsean region was about to

take place in such a peaceful durianorchard in Malacca.

Located in the sweeping groundsof the Road Transport Department'sAcademy grounds near Malacca wasthe Crash Test Laboratory of theMalaysian Institute of Road Safety(Miros) which was set up recently.

Sharp on the dot of 4pm, with anunearthly sound like a banshee, awhite Toyota Vios ru~hed into viewand smashed into a concrete blockat what seemed like a fatal speed.

Even though it was a simulatedcrash under laboratory conditions,it was a sickening sight that eliciteda collective sigh, and some stifledscreams from the 15photographersand media representatives squeezedinto the stuffy observation room ofthe Miros PC3 Crash Lab.

The crash simulation was thefinale of a week-long AutomotiveSafety Exhibition and Seminar held

+ in Malacca, in association with theGlobal New Car Assessment Pro­gramme (NCAP), a London-basedfoundation established by the Paris­based FIA (Federation Internation­ale de l'Automobile).

The PC3 Miros Crash Test Lab isthe first in Asean and it establish~es Malaysia as the focal point forassessing the safety of cars made inthe region ..

Miros director general Dr WongVoon Shaw expects to producethe NCAP (or safety report cardsfor cars) for seven made-in-Aseanvehicles this October. Each of thecars will be a best selling model, ofthe lowest specification, from seven

Wong (left) and his mentor Radin are among the prime movers of Asean 's first crash test lab. Says Wong, "I was just ayoung boy when Prof Radin was my lecturer. He motivated me and taught me all the things that led to this crash test

. lab." Inset: Solah.

FIA contribution

WHEN Max Mosley was still thechairman of the FIA - the Paris­based world governing body overmotor vehicle sports and, inciden­tally, safety - he established theFIA Foundation on road safety inLondon.

The FIA Foundation contributedRMI million to the first phase of theMiros PC3 which includes the crashtesting and assessment of sevenmade-in-Asean cars.

The Automobile Association ofMalaysia (AAM) is an affiliate ofthe FlA, whose current chairman isJean Todt, the contant companionand confidante of Malaysian actressDatuk Michelle Yeoh.

Prince Michael of Kent is thepatron of the Commission for GlobalRoad Safety and has been to Malay­sia often, the last official visit beingthe opening of the Malaysian officeof the Institute of the Motor Indus­try.

sian governmentled initiative willlead to Thailand and Indonesia toaccept an Asean NCAP.

Finally, tribute must be paid toProf Radin Omar, who - as a lec­turer in Universiti Putra Malaysia(UPM) and then as the first head ofMiros - started Malaysia on its jour­ney towards road safety awareness.Congratulations also to the teamheaded by current Miros head DrWong Voon Shaw, the ex-studentof Prof Radin, and to other gradu­ates and engineers ofUPM who arethe pioneering team in the MirosPC3 lab test. Together with DatukSolah Mat Hasan, the RTD directorgeneral, the three honourable chapshave created the Miros PC3 CrashTest Lab in four years.

For Datuk Solah, it will be a crownto his achievements on his plannedretirement in September.

quickly saw the importance ofNCAPand it fathered the Euro NCAP, buton a voluntary basis, in the sameyear of the US crash test.

The Brussels-based Euro NCAPis now backed by the EuropeanCommission, seven European gov­ernments, as well as motoring andconsumer organisations in every EUcountry.

Other regions in the worldwith similar programmes includeAustralia and New Zealand withANCAP, Latin America with LatinNCAP and China with China NCAP.

Hopefully, the Miros and Malay-

Vehicle Information and Cost Sav­ings Act of 1972.The Act was enact­ed to encourage manufacturers tobuild safer vehicles.

The first standardised, 35mph(56km) front crash test was done onMay 21, 1979, and the first resultswere released on Oct 15that year.

Since then, the US' NHTSA(National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration) has issued a finalruling requiring manufacturers toplace NCAP star ratings (5-star is thebest safety rating) on the automobilesticker price.

Britain, another rich nation,

manufacturers ..There are many things to explain

here.Firstly, safety. Like it or not,

safety is a prerogative of those whocan afford it. Volvo was the first carmaker in the world that crash testedcars so that its R&Dengineers couldvalidate the data needed to buildsafer cars. They installed a fancynew crash test facility about a dec­ade ago to replace a much older lab.

It was the United States whichstarted the New Car AssessmentProgramme (usually called NCAP)in 1979 in response to the Motor

CRASH TEST LABORATORY: The facility in Malacca aims to come up

with an acceptable Asean NeAP ratingYAMINVONGREPORTING

yomin@cbt.com:my

www.cbt.com.my