NATIONAL Highways initiated a series of crash tests with Euro NCAP and other European road safety bodies after identifying a serious risk on England’s motorways and major A-roads.
Testing focused on rear-end collisions involving heavy goods vehicles (HGVs),specifically where a smaller vehicle – typically a car- strikes the back of a HGV.
In 2024, HGVs made up 10% of traffic on England’s motorways and major A‑roads, yet were involved in 19% of collisions where people were killed or seriously injured.
Rear-end shunts were the most common, accounting for 39% of all HGV‑related collisions in 2024. In the same year, 160 collisions involved a smaller vehicle hitting the rear of a HGV, with 18% of all serious or fatal HGV-related casualties resulting from this type of collision.
Roads and Buses Minister Simon Lightwood said: “Every death on our roads is a tragedy, which is why I am pleased to see National Highways taking the initiative with this vital research.
“This will go hand in hand with our Road Safety Strategy – the first in over a decade – as part of our commitment to cut deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 65% by 2035.”
Sheena Hague, Director of Road Safety at National Highways, said:
“Collisions where smaller vehicles run into the back of HGVs can have devastating consequences. This testing helps build a clearer understanding of how and why they happen, so we can work with our partners to take practical steps to prevent them or reduce their impact.”
“The freight industry is a vital part of our economy, and we work closely with hauliers and others to help keep all road users safe.”
To explore how vehicle safety measures perform in real-world conditions, National Highways worked with Euro NCAP on two sets of tests in February and March this year.
Testing was carried out alongside Sweden’s national transport authority and Germany’s Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil Club (ADAC) – Europe’s largest automobile association – after all three organisations independently identified similar concerns regarding rear-end collisions.
The first test looked at how well advanced emergency braking systems (AEBS) in cars detect the back of different HGV trailers. The results showed variation in how these systems detected different trailer designs. Older AEBS did not consistently recognise the rear of trailers, meaning the emergency braking did not always activate.
The second crash test assessed the performance of rear underrun protection (RUP) systems – metal bars fitted to the back of HGVs to stop cars going underneath in a collision. Rear underrun devices approved to the UNECE regulation were crash-tested and compared with similar tests carried out in the United States.
The testing highlighted how important rear underrun protection is in reducing the severity of rear-end collisions. However, some existing designs did not prevent the cars from going underneath the trailers and demonstrating severe injury would result for vehicle occupants.
