SUVs, pickup trucks, minivans did not appear to be safer in the rear end crash. The seat and the head restraint of the vehicles are not able to protect passengers in a rear- end crash. In a test conducted by The Insurance Institute for Highway safety it considered 87 of the present vehicle models 54 were rated marginal or poor.
It is an independent, nonprofit, scientific and educational organization dedicated to reduce the losses in the highway accidents and it rates vehicle good, acceptable, marginal or poor based on there evaluation in the high speed front and side crash tests and also on the basis of seat /head restraints in protection against rear impacts. Rear crash protection has its main focus on how far the seat/head restraints combination protect against whiplash injury.
Vice President IIHS David Zuby explains that in a stop and go type of traffic rear end collision is the most probable accident rather any other type of crash. And he is also not satisfied with the engineering seriousness this matter is attracting. The IIHS stated that in a rear crash test many of the large vehicles fall short in protection against neck injuries.
These neck injuries are costing a lot of money to the insurance companies. There are 2 million insurance claims costing at least $8.5 billion. It was revealed by the test of rear crashes at a low speed of 20 miles per hour that many of the large vehicles fall short in providing protection against the injuries. VP David Zuby explains “It’s not a major feat of engineering to design seats and head restraints that afford good protection in these common crashes.”
According to the institute the first complaint for the effectiveness of the head restraint is its geometry. If the head restraint is not close to the back of the head of the occupant it will not be helpful in a whiplash injury in a rear end collision. And these geometric ratings are good predictors for the level of safety against rear end crashes. If we believe in some of our safety experts the head and torso must go together to minimize the risk of whiplash.
The institute evaluated 87 of the current vehicle models under the geometric evaluation test of the head restraints and there performance in the crash tests. Out of them 54 were rated marginal or poor, about 12 received a score of acceptable. 21 of the vehicles were rated good.
59 SUVs, out of them 17 were rated good and 5 acceptable and the rest 37 were marginal or poor Vans, three of them were rated good, two acceptable it combines to be half of the vehicles tested.
Pick up trucks one model rated good and five of them were acceptable and 11 of them were either marginal or poor.
Talking about SUVs they performed better as compared to last year where only six of the total 44 SUVs earned good ratings.
These tests are helping good with the improvement of vehicles, IIHS states that many of the vehicles manufacturers get there vehicles improved to get the top safety pick awards. Example redesigned 2007 Tundra from Toyota motors was rated good this year, last year it was just acceptable, also CRV by Honda Motors was rated good with respect to poor last year.
