Mercedes-Benz’s new Vito light-commercial van has won a five-star safety rating — the first vehicle in its class to receive this top rating.
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) conducted frontal offset, side offset and pole crash tests to confirm the Vito rating last month. The pole test collision was executed at 29km/h.
Ken Matthews, the Managing Director of Mercedes-Benz Commercial, says the van series was only conceived “10 or 11 years ago”.
“To meet the five-star rating in 10 to 11 years is fantastic,” he says.
“The van operator is on the road from early in the morning to late at night so there is a higher likelihood of that car being involved in a car accident.
“Safety ratings for commercial vehicles is definitely the direction to be going in.”
ANCAP rates every Australian vehicle on its safety features and crash integrity. Its Chairman, Lachlan McIntosh, believes the ratings are becoming more important to fleet operators.
“More and more we are finding the consumer asking for this information to incorporate into their tenders,” he says.
“We put our faith in Government, in manufacturers — we expect the regulations will cover things but unfortunately regulations are a bit slow.
QUOTE: “Today is a milestone at ANCAP. There aren’t many five-star safety rated cars on the market.”
“We publish our results so the public and customers can make up their own minds. It is the customer’s decision, but you need the information to make a choice.
“Today is a milestone at ANCAP. There aren’t many five-star safety rated cars on the market.”
Safer vehicles are increasingly important to operators from a compliance point of view, with warnings the cab of a truck will become an extension of the workplace from an occupational health and safety perspective.
John Merritt, the Executive Director of the Victorian occupational health and safety regulator WorkSafe, has urged operators to invest in the safest possible equipment to reduce potential hazards for drivers.
“Forty percent of all accidents are vehicle related. In health and safety, the way the law is framed, it says you must create or supply a safe workplace,” he says.
“Vehicles are a contemporary workplace.
“The debate as to what constitutes a safe workplace allows us as the safety regulators to engage with operators to ask [these questions].”