Test drive ADAC – camper versus car
The United German Automobile Club ADAC continues to conduct non-standard crash tests. This time, the organization showed what would be the consequences of the collision of the Fiat Ducato camper, which weighs 3,5 tons, and the Citroen C5 station wagon weighing 1,7 tons. The results are amazing.
The reason for the test is because the popularity of campervans is constantly growing. In Germany alone, according to the Ministry of Transport, sales of such vehicles have increased by 2011% since 77, reaching 500 units. The COVID-000 pandemic has forced people to look even more for vacationers as they can travel with them in Europe with limited air travel.
The absolute record holder in the segment - Fiat Ducato, participates in tests, the current generation of which has been produced since 2006 and makes up about half of all campers in Europe. The model has never been tested by Euro NCAP, and the outdated Citroen C5 in 2009 received the maximum 5 stars for safety.
ADAC is now simulating a head-on collision between two vehicles at 56 km/h with 50 percent coverage, which is a common situation on a secondary road. There are 4 mannequins in the camper, the last of which is a small child sitting on a special chair at the back. The van only has a driver dummy.
Impact loads on dummies are shown in the figure. Red indicates lethal loads, brown indicates high loads, resulting in severe injury and possible death. Orange means non-life-threatening injuries, while according to yellow and green, there is no health hazard.
As you can see, only the front passenger survives in the camper, who is likely to end up in a wheelchair due to severe hip injuries. The driver receives an incompatible load in the chest area, and there are also serious leg injuries. Passengers in the second row - an adult and a child - fall into the structure on which the seats are fixed, and receive fatal blows to the head.
Before a collision, the camper's equipment must be made operational as indicated in the instructions. However, the cabinets are opened, and objects in them fall into the cabin and cause additional injuries to passengers. The driver's door is locked and the heavy vehicle tends to tip over in a collision.
As for the driver of Citroen C5, after hitting the camper, judging by the fixed loads, there was no sound space left on it. Euro NCAP and ADAC explain this by the high impact speed and the significantly higher mass of the camper, the weight of which is 2 times that of the station wagon.
What are the conclusions of the test? First of all, car drivers should be kept away from campers and other heavy equipment. In turn, companies involved in the design of campers need to pay more attention to the safety of the structures of the passenger and living quarters. Buyers of such cars should not skimp on modern active safety systems such as emergency braking systems. The things in the camper must be well secured, and the dishes must be plastic, not glass, even if it is not so environmentally friendly.
