Dubliner Simon Edmonds tells Catherine Cronin about working for Euro NCAP, the independent car safety organisation that crash tests Europe's cars.
Probably as feared by car makers as Jeremy Clarkson once was, Irishman Simon Edmonds' job is also about the latest wheels, foreign trips and corporate briefings. But while the infamous motoring journalist picks up a different car every week, drives it to death, writes the words and rolls the video, Edmonds' crashes them at speed to see how they fare.
As technical manager with Euro NCAP, Simon Edmonds puts some 30 of the latest models in EU through various simulated crash tests at laboratories in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. He spends 40 weeks a year abroad and, when not testing the cars, visits manufacturers in Europe and the Far East to discuss and explain Euro NCAP's protocols.
But his job is far less exotic than Clarkson's. Apart from travel and new cars, the similarities end. The dummies get to sit at the wheel. Edmonds role is to interpret the scientific graphs on the crash test dummies to assess their injuries and view high speed film to see what they hit. Then he dissects the car.
"We strip off the trim and look inside the dash," he says. "We assess if the car was at its limit at the crash test speed. If it was quicker, would more of the body shell have collapsed? Would the impact be more severe if the person was taller or heavier?
"If we find a problem, we apply a modifier and, if there are a few of these, it could mean a star reduction."
According to Edmonds, Euro NCAP is the only independent crash test programme in the world with such a detailed post-crash inspection and he believes it's the toughest. "I can recall one car, for example, which got five stars in the US programme but three stars with us."
Europe's independent new car assessment body is always looking at developments. "Our child protection protocol enticed car-makers and child seat-makers to work together," says Edmonds. "You can go to our web site and get a list of recommended child seats for each car tested. Some say we should include a roll-over test, more suggest other types of test. But each full-scale test costs and every new assessment has to have a real world benefit."
One of Euro NCAP's research groups is looking at whiplash and hoping to assess how well cars protect against it from 2005. Its other current focus is primary safety.
"Some suggest a shortcoming of our tests is that they evaluate cars after an accident. So we are looking at testing features which help prevent an accident in the first place."
Euro NCAP is concentrating on three areas: vehicle dynamics; visibility and lighting; and ergonomics and driver information systems. "In terms of vehicle dynamics, we are looking at testing braking distances in dry and wet conditions and comparing different cars," explains Edmonds. "And, of course, ESP - this senses when the car is about to under- or over-steer and applies braking to an individual wheel. Everyone is saying how great it is and we want to quantify it."
On visibility, some cars are much better than others because of front pillar design. "Light quality and spread also differs in cars and some are better at helping spot pedestrians at night," he says. "And with driver information systems, the emphasis is on how they affect safety or are they too distracting?"
Current tests have encouraged car-makers in recent years to develop safer cars and include more features such as airbags. New tests could result in more primary or active safety features included as standard in future.
Drivers can also be too complacent. "Our tests apply only to belted occupants. Wearing a seat belt is so fundamental. Seat belts and air bags share the load in an accident."
Edmonds believes good driver training and education are vital. Watching F1 drivers walk away from high-speed accidents may make some people complacent. "Unlike most of us, these are professionally-trained and in monocoques which have to pass really stringent crash tests," he says.
"Take for example Ralph Schumacher's accident at the US Grand Prix. It was alleged he was doing 180 mph and saw 78G (measure of force of gravity on the body) which can do serious damage. I don't know if it was that much, but it looked like a lot of energy was lost in the tailspin. He was lucky he went in at an angle and not head on.
"A crash like that 10 years ago in Formula 1 would have been fatal. Euro NCAP's frontal car test at 40mph can hit 65G. It should concentrate the mind. So, when Top Gear came to us and said they wanted to crash-test a car live for its TV programme using one of their own drivers, we couldn't condone it."
Euro NCAP wants to highlight the importance of building safer cars and is using its annual results announcement as an opportunity for broader consumer awareness, especially where it can make a big impact. The most recent results were announced in Prague and the next will be announced in Lisbon.
"The unfortunate thing is that in some EU accession countries, cars tend to be older and the price of new small cars puts them out of the reach of many, never mind buying larger fully-equipped cars with six to eight airbags." The 30-year-old Dubliner qualified as a mechanical engineer before working with EPO, an engineering consultancy here. In 1995 he was working on a track layout for Luas - the talk then, he recalls, was that it was going to be delayed until 2000.
He then became a crash test engineer with TRL, the transport research laboratory in Britain, before joining Euro NCAP.
"I've always loved cars," he says. "That's why I did mechanical engineering. I love the job despite the 40 weeks a year travel."
What does he drive? "Hmm, it's a nice car but I don't think it would get five stars in the tests."
What is it then? "An old Porsche, a 16-year-old 711 Carrera I got in England." Probably the only person embarrassed about driving a Porsche, apart from Clarkson.