Car Safety - NCAP 1/2

In the second part I will present what it is NCAP. Probably most of you have heard about it. Develop names are: the European New Car Assessment Programme.

Euro NCAP organizes and provides consumers with crash-test with a realistic andindependent assessment of the safety performance of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe. Founded in 1997, Euro NCAP consists of seven European governments, as well as motoring and consumer organizations in every European country. Euro NCAP has rapidly become a catalyst for encouraging significant safetyimprovements a new project car.

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Tests that cars pass can be classified into:

Frontal Impact

Frontal impact test is based on that developed by European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee as basis for legislation, but impact speed has been increased by 8 km/h.

Frontal impact takes place at 64kph (40mph), car strikes deformable barrier that is offset. Readings taken from dummies are used to assess protection given to adult front occupants.

Each car tested is subjected to an offset impact into an immovable block fitted with a deformable aluminium honeycomb face. This impact is intended to represent the most frequent type of road crash, resulting in serious or fatal injury. The barrier face is deformable to represent the deformable nature of the cars. This test is a severe test of the car’s ability to survive the impact without suffering passenger.

Steering wheel mounted airbags form an important part of the driver’s restraint system. For a restrained occupant, the deceleration forces, generated in the crash, are transmitted to the occupant through the restraint system. Euro NCAP has encouraged the adoption of seat belt pretentioners, load limiters and dual stage airbags, to help attenuate the forces transmitted to the occupant.

Car to Side Impact

The second most important crash configuration is car to car side impact. Euro NCAP simulates this type of crash by having a mobile deformable barrier (MDB) impact the driver’s door at 50 km/h. The injury protection is assessed by a side impact test dummy, in the driver’s seat.

Pole Side Impact

Accident vary from country to country, but approximately a quarter of all serious injuries happen in side impact collisions. Many of these injuries occur when one car runs into the side of another or into a fixed narrow object such as a tree or pole.

To encourage manufacturers to fit head protection devices, pole test may be performed, where such safety features are fitted. Side impact head or curtain airbags help to protect the head and upper torso by providing a padding effect and by preventing the head from passing through the window opening. In the test, the car tested is propelled sideways at 29kph (18mph) into a rigid pole. The pole is relatively narrow, so there is major penetration into the side of the car.

Pedestrian Protection

A series of tests are carried out to replicate accidents involving child and adult pedestrians where impacts occur at 40kph (25mph). Impact sites are then assessed and rated to weak and poor. In 2009, the pedestrian score has become integral part of the overall rating scheme.

Do you think such tests are a good idea?

When choosing a car pay you attention to safety?

Would you choose Chinese car?

At the end I suggest watch how looks like the Chinese car during the accident:

Car safety - Inteligent Cars

Interested in a presentation on electric cars browsing the Internet I found the Intelligent Car Initiative of the European Commission.The initiative aims to improve the safety of road users by using "intelligent cars" equipped with advanced technologies."

Intelligent cars is nothing but a car packed with electronics that help drivers do not kill on the road. And to avoid accidents with other participants of traffic.

Below the list of systems that make up the intelligent car:

Anti-Lock Braking System - Abs prevent what happens when that occurs after you lock the wheels, such as the abolition of the car on the side, spinning the car, losing control of car driving. Braking distance of a vehicle equipped with ABS as compared to an identical vehicle without the system depends on several factors, such as external conditions and driving skills.

Electronic Brake Assist - researchers found that in the first phase of the emergency braking of the driver pushing the brake pedal with too little force so do not take full advantage of the brakes. Electronic Brake Assist detects emergency braking on the ways in which the press (correctly) the brake pedal and the same increase braking power

Active cruise control - sometimes called the adaptive speed control. This system adjusts the speed of your vehicle to the car in front of you. With the help of the radar system detects vehicles on the front and without the driver stops to avoid a collision. When you head off danger will accelerate the car itself.

Active headlights - often referred to as adaptive headlamps. Their action is directing a beam of light from the headlight to the left, right, up and down depending on the steering wheel. This technology brightens the corners and prevents glare of vehicles from the opposite side when accelerating. During hard braking does not reduce the range of lights.

Assistant lane change - sometimes called the blind spot detector.When you just want to change lanes and never see another car that is at a standstill, this system will vibrate the steering wheel and nicely displays a warning in the mirror.

Electronic stability program/control - in short, ESP, ESC, etc.. The system detects understeer and oversteer, taking into account the signal from the steering wheel, each wheel speed sensors and sensor car market on its axis. With the help of wheel abs brakes in such way as to save the driver from oppression. In 2005 Electronic Stability Control has been installed in 40% of new cars.

The gear shift indicator - also known as shiftlight. It is a light or lights that inform the driver of a car with manual transmission, the need for a reduction or change to a higher gear. This affects the performance of the car and the burning, because most drivers change gear at the wrong time.

eCall - There is a system of actively affecting driving safety, and the situation after the accident. eCall is an automatic notification of the accident. When the event will run airbags, this system will automatically notify the dispatcher of the collision, including sending GPS coordinates for their location, information about the car, etc.. The system can also be run manually. Mandatory installation of the system in new cars was planned for 2010. But the plan has not been met. I believe that this many people save their lives.

Would you like to move a car equipped with these systems?

If so, which one?

Do you think that this will increase safety on the road?

Source:

http://www.bosch-esperience.com/

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABS_(motoryzacja)

http://moto.money.pl/wiadomosci/publikacje/artykul/systemy;bezpieczenstwa;w;samochodach;czyli;co;znacza;te;literki,195,0,435139.html

http://www.volvocars.com/intl/top/about/values/pages/safety.aspx

Why Polish football is so weak?

Recently, we have been able to watch two football matches of Poland. One of them with Argentina and the second with France. I watched both and what I can say that we are lagging behind the greatest teams of the world. Our game is slow, chaotic and has no technique. We do not have our own style. I remember France in the World Cup 2010 - they had a problem, but only with the coach. They have world class players. It was enough to change the coach and relationships immediately have improved and now the game is really good. We could find that out yesterday.

Poland has a bigger problem than France because we do not have football schools, there are not many world class players, we do not have enough good coaches, and the PZPN (Polish Football Association) is far from what is happening on Polish stadiums. We all suspect that PZPN wants only to make money but does not care about the football. Polish football hit the bottom.

Brazilian Soccer Schools (BSS) created by Simon Clifford.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GV8tHLIzVE
(embedding video is not allowed)

We need to consider what makes that some countries are still on the top or easily jumped to the front. As is known world is ruled by money and it also relates to football. World-class clubs have unlimited budget in relation to the Polish finance, but this is not the only reason : they have clubs where they teach how to play football to groups of talented kinds (Ajax Amsterdam, FC Barcelona). In Poland football schools are rare. Education of a player is much cheaper than ‘buying’ good players. A very big impact on our club league’s level have league competitions where there are too few matches for a big stake, because usually only 2-3 teams are fighting for the championship.

http://www.shetland.gov.uk/community/news/RossCountykicksoffsummerfootballseason.asp

A Great impact on the representation has selection and training. Many countries such as Germany and Russia after the failure of tournaments radically changed the training system in their countries. When the coach Hiddink arrived in Russia they changed his style to Dutch, while the Germans began to monitor their most talented players, they make periodic examinations and visit their clubs.

A very important thing in football is also a tactic. Representation coaches have no impact on the preparation of players, as they work with them for so little time, so the choice of tactics for the opponent is the most important thing (it was showed by the Greek footballers at Euro 2004 where they won the gold medal and weren’t even the favorite to leave their group) .

http://dziennikturystyczny.pl/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/euro2012_logo1.jpg

Questions:

• What is your opinion about Polish football?
• Do you believe that the worst football times are behind us and now it will be only better?
• Do you believe in the success of Poland in EURO2012?