SAFETY HAS BECOME A PRIORITY FOR AUTO MANUFACTURERS AND CONSUMERS, BUT HOW IS IT MEASURED?
When Ford introduced the concept of safety as a selling point in 1956, it was a failed experiment. Customers simply didn’t want to hear or think about the consequences of a crash.
That attitude has changed significantly in the last 60 years. Buyers now claim that safety is a major consideration in their purchase decisions. Automakers have responded to that need not only by improving the safety features and characteristics of the vehicles they build but also by proudly advertising them.
Active safety features that help prevent a crash from occurring are the focus of much attention these days. And rightly so.
There are many new exciting technologies that are proving to be effective. But, while the situation may be improving, crashes still occur.
The good news is the survivability of those crashes is also improving. And that’s not by accident.
Automakers are also improving their vehicles’ passive safety features – the things that help mitigate the severity of a crash and protect the occupants when one does occur.
Such features may be promoted in terms of the number and location of airbags and generalized talk of safety structures, as well as ‘Star’ ratings or ‘Top Safety Pick’ labels. But what do those terms really mean to a customer? Or to a sales person?
They should mean a lot. There’s some serious testing behind them that it’s worth understanding both when buying, or selling, a new vehicle. The first step is understanding the hierarchy of crash testing.
All new light-duty vehicles sold here must satisfy Canadian government safety standards (CMVSS), which are in almost every respect identical to those established by the U.S. government (FMVSS). Those standards include frontal, side and rear crash tests that mandate minimum levels of protection for vehicle occupants.
Beyond those minimums, both the U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) also conduct a range of more severe crash tests, and publish their results so consumers can make comparisons between vehicles. This also provides an incentive for automakers to improve their crash performance beyond the bare minimums required.
NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) uses a star rating system to rate crash performance on the basis of frontal and side-impact crashes and rollover propensity. Five stars overall is the highest possible ranking.
Four tests are involved: a full-frontal crash at 56 km/h; a side-impact crash with a 1,368-kg barrier moving at 62 km/h into a standing vehicle; a side pole crash test with the vehicle moving sideways at 75 degrees and 32 km/h into a 25-cm diameter pole; and a rollover propensity assessment based on static vehicle measurements.
The IIHS awards ‘Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick +’ status for vehicles is based on its own testing regimen, which includes moderate and small-overlap front crash tests, side-impact and roof-strength tests, and head restraint assessments.
The ‘plus’ suffix is applied to vehicles that achieve Top Safety Pick (TSP) status and earn an advanced or superior rating for their standard or optional front crash prevention systems.
Rather than crashing the full front of a vehicle into a fixed barrier, as in government-mandated and NCAP tests, IIHS employs two frontal crash modes – a moderate overlap test in which just half the front of the vehicle impacts the barrier and a small-overlap test in which just one-quarter of the vehicle hits the barrier, in both cases at 64 km/h.
Those tests simulate a car-to-car crash condition that is quite common in the real world when one vehicle collides with another in the oncoming lane. Striking a fixed barrier is equivalent in terms of crash energy to striking an oncoming vehicle of the same mass travelling at the same speed.
The IIHS side-impact test is conducted straight on with a larger, 1,500 kg barrier, simulating an SUV moving at 50 km/h. The roof crush test measures the force required to deflect the roof rail at the driver’s door by 127 mm. The head restraint assessment combines static dimensional checks with a sled test that simulates being rear-ended by a vehicle of equal mass at 32 km/h.
To earn Top Pick status, a vehicle must achieve a ‘Good’ rating in all but the small-overlap test and a ‘Good’ or ‘Acceptable’ rating in that one – suggesting that it’s the most challenging standard to meet.
So, if the vehicles in your showroom have earned either, or preferably both Five Star or Top Safety Pick laurels, it’s something to be proud of. And to sell!
