ASEAN Crash-Test Results Delayed, Shifted to New Venue Again

It’s now Plan C for release of testing results from the fledging New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN NCAP).

The group originally was to announce the third-phase crash results at an event in Bangkok earlier this year, but that was canceled because of the deteriorating political situation in Thailand.

At the time, ASEAN NCAP Secretary-General Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim said the group was reverting to Plan B and would announce the results in Malaysia in March.

Now the results will be announced May 5 at the Global NCAP Annual Forum in Melbourne, Australia, held in conjunction with the 2014 UN Decade of Action Policy & Donor Forum organized by the Commission for Global Road Safety.

In apologizing for the delay, Kassim says the decision was made to honor the most important event in the UN Decade of Action.

“This is not even our Plan B (in Malaysia) as we announced earlier, but we’re being offered such an opportunity especially by Global NCAP to do this in Melbourne,” he says in a statement.

ASEAN NCAP Chairman Wong Shaw Voon says the group’s pilot project will be completed with the end of the third phase.

“We are focusing at the regional level, and we hope to see the impact in the very near future,” he says. “At the same time, we think our approach in developing NCAP in ASEAN is unique and we are willing to share our formula especially when dealing with the industry.”