The Accident Compensation Commission’s attempt to blame multiple mistakes in setting vehicle levies on a computer ‘coding error’ is a blatant mistruth, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says:
“The ACC has based the entire levy system on a set of badly flawed data from Monash University. This Monash data is riddled with errors and false assumptions; that’s the real reason for the multiple mistakes in setting ACC levies.”
“For example, until the ACC backed down yesterday, all versions of the Nissan Skyline received a rating of ‘unsafe,’ based on the Monash data. This rating was simply wrong: in fact, later versions of the Skyline have a very sound crash test rating”
“If the Monash staff had done their basic research correctly, they would have found out that – in real-life accidents – one model of the Nissan Skyline had one of the lowest rates of death of any vehicle in the US at the time.”
Matthew-Wilson says the ACC, based on the Monash data, also gives a good safety rating to several ‘death-trap’ vehicles.
“According to the ACC, early versions of the Chrysler Voyager are very safe. In fact, they’re death-traps. The 1999 Chrysler Voyager was one of the worst ever failures in European crash tests.”
“The European crash tests rate vehicles from one to 16 points. The 1999 Chrysler Voyager scored no points at all in the frontal protection section of the European crash tests.”
“The June 2006 to Sept 2007 version of the Chrysler Voyager scored just 3.15 out of 16 in the offset crash test. That’s an appalling result, yet the ACC effectively recommends this vehicle.”
The ACC also says the 1999-2002 Chevrolet Blazer is a very safe vehicle, yet a major 2005 American study showed it was one of the unsafest vehicles in America. A separate crash test backed this finding.
“The list of blunders just goes on and on. According to the ACC, the 2000-2011 Toyota Avensis is an unsafe vehicle. Yet, according to crash tests, this vehicle is one of the safest in its class.”
“The ACC says the
Matthew-Wilson says there are multiple other errors within the ACC levy rating system, adding:
“ACC didn’t make a computer coding error. They made the error of trusting a shoddy piece of research from Monash University.”
“I think it’s pretty obvious that this ACC rating system is fatally flawed. I call on the government to pull the plug on the whole debacle.”
