2005 Safety Report Card

"The safety story," says Dr. Adrian K. Lund, COO of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, "is that automakers are making rapid safety changes" and those changes are making some crash testing obsolete.

Change is Good
The IIHS historically goads automakers into safety changes with state of the art crash testing. Their frontal crash test performed at 40 mph into an offset barrier began in 1995. "The frontal crash test brought about big changes in cars on American roadways," Dr. Lund told the Washington Automotive Press Association this month and added that the Institute is considering discontinuing that particular test because it is no longer necessary. The first head-on crash test in 1995 had only poor or marginal performers.

"The dummies have been telling us the truth."
All but two out of 117 vehicles tested in the Institute's last set of frontal crash tests achieved a "best pick" or good rating. The two poor performers were based on old model designs and will be replaced with new designs this year. "The dummies have been telling us the truth," Lund said. Outside of the test lab, real world data shows models with a best pick or good rating at IIHS have a 75 percent better chance of their occupants surviving a head-on crash.

Up Front
After highlighting the good marks in frontal crashes, Lund added that more improvements for crashworthiness are still needed. From the early 1980s until 2000, driver death rates per million cars registered decreased 47 percent. Most of this improvement was in frontal crashes, in which driver death rates decreased 52 percent. In contrast, the decrease in side impacts was only 24 percent, yet it is the second most common fatal crash. The reduction in side impact fatalities is due in large part to torso and head airbag protection.

Side Story
IIHS tests side impacts at 31 mph with a higher, heavier sled to mimic a SUV into a passenger car side impact. In the first set of side impacts with this test, two small SUVs, the Subaru Forester and Ford Escape, earned good ratings while seven had poor ratings. The first testing on 24 midsize models earned good ratings for nine, and seven poor ratings. (Models tested with optional torso and head side airbags scored good with the airbags and poor without.) In small cars tested, 14 of 16 tested are rated poor. Two large luxury cars, Audi A6 and Nissan Infiniti M35, requested early testing and drove away with a good rating on side impact.