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Moving on: ANCAP deputy chairman Lauchlan McIntosh will retire from his role as deputy chairman this week, but stay on as a board member for Global NCAP.

Moving on: ANCAP deputy chairman Lauchlan McIntosh will retire from his role as deputy chairman this week, but stay on as a board member for Global NCAP.

A MAN who played an indelible role in driving life-saving improvements to family cars in Australia has announced his retirement from the independent Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) board after more than 20 years.

Joining ANCAP as chairman in 1994, Lauchlan McIntosh helped to shape independent crash testing of light vehicles in this country, often incurring the wrath of car manufacturers who, in the early days, dreaded seeing their shortcomings splashed across the news media.

In effect, ANCAP shamed the car manufacturers and importers into lifting safety standards across the board, way beyond the mandatory rules enforced by the Federal Government’s Australian Design Rules.

Countless lives have been saved by these improvements that not only include occupant-protecting safety cells and impact-absorbing crush zones but also technologies such as electronic stability control (ESC), head-protecting side airbags and – more recently – autonomous braking.ancap

ANCAP chair Wendy Machin, who took over the role from Mr McIntosh in 2015, said Mr McIntosh had driven ANCAP to become a world leader and stellar example of the vital role an independent voice can have in raising vehicle safety standards through a non-regulatory approach.

“His involvement with ANCAP has spanned more than two decades, devoting a significant part of his career to improving vehicle safety and the broader road safety cause,” she said.

“Around 2000 Australians died on our roads each year in the early 1990s, but today, notwithstanding the increase in mobility, fatalities have dropped to 1300.

“Safer vehicles have been a major contributor to this and Lauchlan’s influence and dedication to the cause has been a constant driver.”ancap-2

Mr McIntosh inherited the fledgling ANCAP organisation when he took over as executive director of the motoring club peak body, Australian Automobile Association (AAA), in 1994.

The AAA and its member organisations such as the NRMA, RACV and RACQ, along with government bodies, were drivers of the testing that originally rated cars using the classifications ‘Good’, ‘Acceptable’, ‘Marginal’ and Poor’.

With help from governments and road safety organisations such as the state Transport Accident Commissions (TACs), NCAP did its own crash testing, in often controversial circumstances.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) was up in arms about the testing, saying the single-car offset crash tests were not repeatable and thus not indicative of true car safety.

Mr McIntosh and ANCAP stuck to its guns, and ultimately manufacturers such as Subaru and Renault broke ranks, building five-star cars and advertising them as such.ancap-3

Today, ANCAP uses safety results from sister organisations such as Euro NCAP on applicable cars, as well as doing its own testing that today also includes side-impact and pole crash tests.

Mr McIntosh, who remains as a board member for Global NCAP and also president of the College of Road Safety, was recognised for his contributions to the development and promotion of road and motor vehicle safety programs by being awarded an Order of Australia in 2007.

Announcing his decision to retire on December 22, Mr McIntosh said: “ANCAP has been successful due to the continuous support of its stakeholders and the voluntary efforts of their many staff, and has encouraged vehicle manufacturers to upgrade the safety of their cars for the benefit of Australian and New Zealand consumers.

“I thank everyone for their support, including the many board members and staff over the past two decades, and the manufacturers.”

By Ron Hammerton

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