Why does NCAP carry out crash tests at speeds not exceeding 70km/h?

Question

Some might not agree with me, but isn

Answer 1

70km/h is about 43mph

I think the whole idea is to show people that even at relatively low speeds, a lot of damage can be done.

Did you ever see the advert where the person is seatbelted into a chair on an inclined plane and the seat is released. As it hits the bottom of the inclined plane, it simulates them coming to a sudden halt at 30mph.

Then they are asked if they'd like to do it again without the seatbelt. It's such a shock that they always decline.

If you can show fatal accidents at 40mph, then smart people will not want to go faster than that.

Answer 2

At higher speeds, there is much less chance of survival no matter how good the car is.
To make a car perform so well in a crash that a higher speed crash would be easily survivable would make cars too heavy, too expensive, too large, too fuel-thirsty for the European market. It may also make the car too stiff in low speed accidents.
Most accidents do not occur at high speeds - in the UK more accidents occur on roads with 30mph limits than on motorways. Therefore if cars were designed to perform well in high-speed accidents (to meet a higher EuroNCAP test speed) overall injuries may increase due to the car's poorer energy absorbtion in the more common lower-speed accidents.