Professor Adrian Hobbs, BSc, EurIng, CEng, FIMechE
European New Car Assessment Programme
(Euro NCAP)
Adrian Hobbs was secretary general of Euro NCAP up to 2007. Prior to this he was chief research scientist of vehicle safety at the Transport Research Laboratory in the UK. He was responsible for initiating the development of EuroNCAP. Adrian was also responsible for the UK programme of Crash Injury Research, which he led for 30 years. This was preceded by ‘on-the-spot’ research into road accident causation. He has provided advice to the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the European Commission and Central European and North African countries on the prevention of accidents and injury and on vehicle safety.

EuroNCAP’s achievements and future direction
Over the last decade or so, EuroNCAP has provided the greatest incentive to encourage car manufacturers to improve the crash protection of their products. This has contributed to improved car secondary safety being responsible for the greatest reduction in road accident casualties in that period. For the future, there is great potential for EuroNCAP to encourage further improvements in both primary and secondary safety, through the provision of consumer information.