Defending
Indian carmakers Maruti Suzuki and Nissan Motor over a failed crash test, India’s
auto industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said they
meet country’s current safety standards and will keep up with required changes.
They
said the UK-based agency had not considered that average speeds in India are
lower than in the developed world, due to poor road conditions and heavy
traffic.
Earlier
this week, Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP),a consumer safety testing
body, said Maruti’s hatchback Swift and Nissan’s compact car Datsun Go showed a
high risk of life-threatening injuries to occupants when crashed headlong into
a stationary object at 64kmph
The
latest clash between India’s carmakers and NCAP comes at a time when the
country is preparing to overhaul its car safety rules to reduce road accidents.
CAP had already rattled the industry by failing five Indian-made cars in
January.
To
reduce traffic fatalities on roads, India’s new government, led by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, is planning to overhaul highway laws, its most
ambitious effort since independence in 1947.
Part
of the government’s overhaul is the Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment
Programme, a ranking system that will include crash tests among other factors
before giving cars star ratings.
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