CollisionFearing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration command, automakers have agreed to lower the front ends of sport utility vehicles and pickups to lower the harm done to smaller car on collision.



The new law requires lowering by half an inch to several inches the height at which relatively bigger vehicles’front ends hit other smaller ones. This standard can be achieved by adding a hollow steel bar below and behind the bumper, lowering the entire frame of the vehicle or installing energy-absorbing beams or brackets under a vehicle. With these changes, it is believed that on collision only the bumper or doorsill of a smaller car would be hit, thereby protecting the car passengers.



Some of the vehicles that meet this standard are Toyota RAV4, Dodge Dakota, redesigned General Motors’ full-size sport utilities, Chevrolet Tahoe, Cadillac Escalade, Toyota’s light trucks and those from Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen and BMW .



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