THE new Ford Focus and the Mercedes-Benz A-class were praised this week in crash tests carried out on small family cars.

They received four stars for front and side-impact safety along with the Renault Megane and Vauxhall Astra. However, the Nissan Almera only received one star and Ford Escort was given two stars in the tests carried out as part of the European New Car Assessment Programme.

The crash tests involved vehicles being deliberately crashed to test occupant survivability. Frontal impact crashes were at 40mph and side impact collisions were at 30mph.

Cars receiving four stars offered the highest level of safety, with the number of stars decreasing for less robustly-built models.

Examiners said the passenger compartment of the Focus remained stable in the frontal impact and the airbags worked well.

But it said the driver's left foot and lower leg were were not well protected.

The Mercedes-Benz A-class "proved to be well up to class standards" and side-impact protection was among the best for any car tested.

Both doors opened during the 'crashes' and the German car-maker said it would modify their design to deal with the problem.

The Nissan Almera "did poorly" in the tests and the passenger compartment "became unstable" in frontal impact.

The Ford Escort was retested following its recent facelift and had "intrusion problems" in the passenger compartment.

The first tests were published in February, 1997, and the programme involves the governments of the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden and the RAC.

Among cars which received four stars in previous tests were the Volkswagen Golf, the Audi A3 and the Volvo S40.

Story date: Wednesday 10 February

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