IT'S one of the sad facts of life that few things attract attention quite like the spectacle of a car accident.

Another is that bad publicity unfailingly generates more publicity than good publicity.

Last week, Volvo managed to combine the two for a memorable day at its testing facility in Gothernberg.

The Swedish car-maker with a legendary reputation for protecting those who ride in its cars was left red-faced after inviting a horde of motoring journalists to witness the wonders of the crash-avoidance system in its S60 sedan.

Out rolled the shiny new S60 from the testing bay, with iconic crash test dummy at the wheel.

As it headed for the rear end of a truck parked some 50m ahead and hit a top speed of 50km/h, journalists watched and wondered when the new system would save it from certain disaster.

And watched. And wondered.

And laughed as the S60 ploughed into the truck without a hint of crash-avoidance, crumpling the front end and planting said crash test dummy's face square into the steering wheel.

Needless to say, it wasn't meant to be like this.

"We've had some kind of mishap in the testing here," Volvo's senior safety Thomas Broberg said, red-faced but smiling.

"Ah, apologise for that.

"This car actually contains the collision-avoidance system that we did not demonstrate in this crash."

In fact, the most impressive aspect of the demonstration was Mr Broberg's ability to remain calm through the sounds of clicking cameras and laughing journalists.

"Obviously the dummy didn't respond to the collision warning that it got," he said.

That's right, Volvo. Blame the dummy.

The company later issued a statement claiming that if a human were behind the wheel, they would have noticed the collision-avoidance system wasn't working and taken the appropriate action.

And to be fair to Volvo, given that 50km/h is somewhere near the top end of a Volvo drivers' thrill-seeking threshold, that's probably a fair call.



