Products Liability Law Daily Wrap Up, NHTSA NEWS—MOTOR VEHICLES—NHTSA issues statement detailing 5-star safety rating, (Oct 10, 2018)

By Colleen Kave, J.D.

Yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provided a description of its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), known as the 5-Star Safety Ratings Program. This program provides consumers with information about the crash protection and rollover safety of new vehicles beyond what is required by federal law (NHTSA News Release, October 9, 2018).

According to the agency, NCAP conducts a series of tests on new vehicles: one frontal and two side crash tests, as well as a rollover resistance assessment, which is a driving maneuver test that assesses a vehicle’s susceptibility to tipping up and a measurement of how top-heavy a vehicle is. Results from these three crash tests and the rollover resistance assessments are weighted and combined into an overall safety rating. A 5-star rating is the highest safety rating a vehicle can achieve. NHTSA does not distinguish safety performance beyond that rating; thus, there is no "safest" vehicle among those vehicles achieving 5-star ratings.

Consumers can access vehicle safety ratings on NHTSA’s website at www.nhtsa.gov/ratings.

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