Our understanding of NCAP stars is too simplistic. To avoid commonly held and potentially dangerous misconceptions, Srini lists twelve things you must know about car safety ratings.

Very often, we simply look at the Global or Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) star ratings and immediately jump to various conclusions.

- by SRINIVAS KRISHNAN

Sometimes these conclusions can be injurious to health. For instance, you may think that, if you are driving around in a 5-star rated car, then you are invincible and that nothing can happen. But nasty things do happen, right? Even occupants of the most well-engineered/safety-feature-equipped cars perish in crashes... What gives? And does a car with 3 stars or below mean it's an unsafe car? Some occupants emerge unscathed from crashes, while some don't from the same model of car - why? Can you trust a list of 'the safest cars in India' based on the number of stars? It's time to bust some myths, and reveal some untold facts.

In my last column, I highlighted how Bharat NCAP 2.0 differs from the previous version (autoX.com/opinion) and is for the better. This time around, as promised, is the second part on safety ratings and new car assessment programmes.

The objective of this column is to clear some perceptions and share some undisclosed information about GNCAP/BNCAP safety ratings, so that you don't fall prey to marketing spiel. Most OEMs tom-tom their safety ratings and give you the impression that you are driving a Main Battle Tank. Well, they are not to be blamed, as these safety ratings – while highly important and critical – also function as marketing collateral, mainly because the ratings given after tests are conducted by an independent third party. But as a prospective car buyer or user, you need to understand the nuances of star ratings - the really important stuff the ads leave out.

I've had long conversations on road safety with a professional automotive and road safety engineer and researcher who goes by the anonymous handle @RSGuy_India, and he has been generous in allowing me to adapt his blog on this topic. So here goes...