Safety Tests of Cars By Brenda Williams At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

While cars are safer when it comes to collisions than they used to be, there are still about 30,000 deaths annually from people traveling in passenger vehicles. There are many factors that go into fatal crashes including things like safety-belt usage, the behavior of the driver, changing road conditions and things that happen on the road that are impossible to avoid. One of the things that needs to be taken into consideration is that the type of car you're driving can mean the difference between life or death in a collision.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has conducted nearly 250 crash test videos to show high-impact segments, and how vehicles held up against the Institute’s stringent frontal-offset barrier tests and its side-impact test. By using a moving barrier that simulates another vehicle on a vehicle collision, the results from these tests have given valuable insight into why passengers get injured and killed. This also allows consumers to look for the safest models in their price range and encourages manufacturers to deliver safer vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is a branch of the Transportation Department, also conducts a series of crash tests and other safety evaluations. Both these organizations conduct front- and side-impact crash tests using different methods. The insurance Institute for Highway Safety challenges the vehicle designs, while the National Highway Safety Administration scores its test using a scale of one to five stars, with fewer stars, meaning the greater likelihood of injury and death in cars while the IIHS uses a four level scale: poor, marginal, acceptable and good.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does a front crash test scenario, where it accelerates the car straight into a rigid barrier going at approximately 35 miles an hour. The entire width of the vehicle's front end is what hits the barrier in the car has seat-belt crash test dummies that sit in the two front seats and record the level of force on body of the car. With these measurements, the NHTSA can assign an injury level on the basis of their star rating.

The IIHS’s crash test involves a front-crash test that simulates what would happen if two cars crashed into each other head on, and if each car weighed the same amount. This test is more severe than The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, because the cars are traveling at a higher rate of speed, and as a result, the crash energy is concentrated in a small area.

They use a dummy, which is sensor-equipped in the driver’s seat and records the force to the head and neck, chest, legs and feet. Vehicles are then rated as good, acceptable, marginal or poor based on the test, and what happens to the vehicle’s structure in conjunction with the force placed on the dummy.

Safety tests of cars also include a side-impact test. This is more sophisticated and more severe on the Insurance Institute Highway safety tests than it is on The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s test. In this test, safety tests of cars uses a heavier striking barrier of about 3300 pounds, compared to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 3015 pounds.

The barrier also strikes higher up on the test vehicle so that it simulates a car being hit at 90° by an SUV or truck. The Insurance Institute Highway administration bases its results on the head and neck chest, abdomen and pelvis and leg injury that would occur as a result of a collision at that speed. Safety tests in cars are created to give consumers an idea of what they’re facing should something untoward happen while driving. It also tells people how well they will fare if a collision should occur.

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