Small SUV's Fail Crash Tests
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Small SUV's Fail Crash Tests
RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — A group of small sport utility vehicles scored poorly in the insurance industry’s first test designed to measure how their occupants would be protected in a side-impact crash involving another SUV.
A 2003 Ford Escape is rammed by a test vehicle.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which conducts and publicizes results of other crash tests, is beginning a new crash-testing program to evaluate how well cars and light trucks hold up when struck in the side by SUVs. Testing for 11 small SUVs will be published in May.
IIHS President Brian O’Neill said vehicles without side-impact airbags aren’t doing well in protecting occupants in its new crash test. The testing of three models with airbags indicates that they are performing markedly better.
Automakers are under increasing regulatory pressure to make popular SUVs and pickup trucks less dangerous to other vehicles during crashes.
“We want side-impact airbags to be standard equipment,” O’Neill said.
Of the 11 small SUVs tested, only two — the Hyundai Sante Fe and Subaru Forester — offer side-impact airbags as standard equipment. Five other compact SUVs offer optional side-impact airbags, and four other models don’t have side-impact airbags at all.
In a test conducted Wednesday at the IIHS’s testing center in rural Virginia, a 3,500-pound “test sled” with a front end molded into the shape of an SUV was rammed into a 2003 Ford Escape.
Two crash-test dummies, representing small women, were seated in the front and rear seats. Upon impact, the driver dummy’s head hit the hood of the test sled, leaving a small dent. The rear passenger dummy’s head slammed into the vehicle’s side frame. Both dummies hit with enough force to sustain serious skull fractures. A crash test conducted a day earlier on an Escape equipped with a side-impact airbag fared considerably better.
“This vehicle is offering much less protection for the driver, which we expected,” O’Neill said of the test on the Escape without an airbag. “Yesterday, there was basically no head injury, nothing we would consider of consequence. What a difference a little energy absorbing material can make.”
O’Neill criticized the U.S. government’s side-impact crash test as out of date with today’s U.S. vehicles. The barrier the government uses resembles a 1980 car, O’Neill said.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spokesman Rae Tyson said the agency is considering changes to its side-impact testing program.
Ford spokeswoman Carolyn Brown said the company would work with the IIHS to interpret the outcome of its test.
“It’s the result of one test, in one laboratory under one set of conditions,” Brown said. “One test does not approximate what happens in the real world. We believe the Escape is a safe vehicle.”
A 2003 Ford Escape is rammed by a test vehicle.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which conducts and publicizes results of other crash tests, is beginning a new crash-testing program to evaluate how well cars and light trucks hold up when struck in the side by SUVs. Testing for 11 small SUVs will be published in May.
IIHS President Brian O’Neill said vehicles without side-impact airbags aren’t doing well in protecting occupants in its new crash test. The testing of three models with airbags indicates that they are performing markedly better.
Automakers are under increasing regulatory pressure to make popular SUVs and pickup trucks less dangerous to other vehicles during crashes.
“We want side-impact airbags to be standard equipment,” O’Neill said.
Of the 11 small SUVs tested, only two — the Hyundai Sante Fe and Subaru Forester — offer side-impact airbags as standard equipment. Five other compact SUVs offer optional side-impact airbags, and four other models don’t have side-impact airbags at all.
In a test conducted Wednesday at the IIHS’s testing center in rural Virginia, a 3,500-pound “test sled” with a front end molded into the shape of an SUV was rammed into a 2003 Ford Escape.
Two crash-test dummies, representing small women, were seated in the front and rear seats. Upon impact, the driver dummy’s head hit the hood of the test sled, leaving a small dent. The rear passenger dummy’s head slammed into the vehicle’s side frame. Both dummies hit with enough force to sustain serious skull fractures. A crash test conducted a day earlier on an Escape equipped with a side-impact airbag fared considerably better.
“This vehicle is offering much less protection for the driver, which we expected,” O’Neill said of the test on the Escape without an airbag. “Yesterday, there was basically no head injury, nothing we would consider of consequence. What a difference a little energy absorbing material can make.”
O’Neill criticized the U.S. government’s side-impact crash test as out of date with today’s U.S. vehicles. The barrier the government uses resembles a 1980 car, O’Neill said.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spokesman Rae Tyson said the agency is considering changes to its side-impact testing program.
Ford spokeswoman Carolyn Brown said the company would work with the IIHS to interpret the outcome of its test.
“It’s the result of one test, in one laboratory under one set of conditions,” Brown said. “One test does not approximate what happens in the real world. We believe the Escape is a safe vehicle.”
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Re: Small SUV's Fail Crash Tests
RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — A group of small sport utility vehicles scored poorly in the insurance industry’s first test designed to measure how their occupants would be protected in a side-impact crash involving another SUV.
A 2003 Ford Escape is rammed by a test vehicle.
In a test conducted Wednesday at the IIHS’s testing center in rural Virginia, a 3,500-pound “test sled” with a front end molded into the shape of an SUV was rammed into a 2003 Ford Escape.
Two crash-test dummies, representing small women, were seated in the front and rear seats. Upon impact, the driver dummy’s head hit the hood of the test sled, leaving a small dent. The rear passenger dummy’s head slammed into the vehicle’s side frame. Both dummies hit with enough force to sustain serious skull fractures. A crash test conducted a day earlier on an Escape equipped with a side-impact airbag fared considerably better.
A 2003 Ford Escape is rammed by a test vehicle.
In a test conducted Wednesday at the IIHS’s testing center in rural Virginia, a 3,500-pound “test sled” with a front end molded into the shape of an SUV was rammed into a 2003 Ford Escape.
Two crash-test dummies, representing small women, were seated in the front and rear seats. Upon impact, the driver dummy’s head hit the hood of the test sled, leaving a small dent. The rear passenger dummy’s head slammed into the vehicle’s side frame. Both dummies hit with enough force to sustain serious skull fractures. A crash test conducted a day earlier on an Escape equipped with a side-impact airbag fared considerably better.
Check out the passenger door!!!
