Japan's Government Reveals Results Of 2001 Crash Tests

April 9, 2002


On April 5, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced results of FY2001 assessment tests. The evaluation battery included tests for three types of collisions (full rap, offset and side), brake operation (at speed rate of 100km/h) and safety (airbags and ABS systems). They evaluate injury rates on head and chests. A total of 27 models were evaluated in the tests. They started assessment tests in 1995. The three models which achieved the highest rates (six stars) for both driver’s seat and front passenger seat were the Toyota Ipsum, Windom (Lexus ES300) and Nissan Skyline. The overall average number of stars for driver’s seats is 4.7, and 5.1 for front passenger seats (3.8 and 4.4 in FY2000). In offset tests alone, five models got six stars. In 1995, 34 percent of vehicles installed airbags for driver’s seats (7 percent for front passenger seats) but this time almost 100 percent of vehicles are equipped with airbags. For ABS systems, installation ratio jumped from 15 percent in FY 1995 to 93 percent in FY2001. Improvement in safety systems helped reduce deaths in car accidents (below 10,000 people) even though the number of car accidents has actually been increasing.