Trump’s remark that the ‘bowling ball’ test on the hood of passenger cars is preventing American automobiles from entering the Japanese market, isn’t sitting well with safety experts.
The purpose of pedestrian protection regulations are to soften car fronts and allow bonnet hoods to deform in a way which reduces the severity of a pedestrian impacting on the hard engine bay – features that have been applied in the European Union and Japan since 2005.
“In my twenty years plus experience of vehicle safety I have never encountered a head of state from a major automobile producing country attempt to ‘weaponize’ a safety feature as an alleged ‘unfair’ trade practice,” said David Ward, secretary general of the Global New Car Assessment Program (Global NCAP), a nonprofit based in London. “President Trump’s comment, whether intended as a joke or not,” showed no understanding and was a misrepresentation.”
Read the article at Forbes.
