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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is making updates to its longest crash test, the moderate overlap front test and so far, only two of the 15 small SUVs, the Ford Escape and Volvo XC40, have protecting the back that lives well. enough to get a good rating.
The test updates are being made “to address a growing gap in the protection provided for front and rear occupants,” the IIHS said.
2022 Ford Escape
The Toyota RAV4 earned an acceptable rating while the Audi Q3, Nissan Rogue, and Subaru Forester reached a marginal rating. The other nine vehicles — the Buick Encore, Chevrolet Equinox, Honda CR-V, Honda HR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Compass, Jeep Renegade, Mazda CX-5, and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross — were rated poor.
2021 Volvo XC40
“The original moderate overlap test was our first test and the lynchpin of the Institute’s crash testing program,” said IIHS President David Harkey, in a news release. “Thanks to improvements by automakers, drivers of most vehicles are about 50% more likely to die in a frontal crash today than they were 25 years ago. Our updated test is a challenges manufacturers to bring the same benefits to the back seat. The stellar performance of the Escape and XC40 shows it is possible.”
All 15 vehicles get a good rating in the original review with “robust” structures and effective restraints that protect the driver’s head from contact with hard interior surfaces and minimize the risk of other types of damage, says the IIHS. “However, the additional measurements provided by the new test show that most of them do not provide enough protection for the rear passenger’s head and neck – the most vulnerable parts of the body.”
In the original moderate overlap frontal test, a vehicle travels at 40 mph toward a barrier with a deformable face made of aluminum honeycomb. A Hybrid III dummy representing an average-sized male is positioned in the driver’s seat. Forty percent of the total width of the vehicle hits the barrier on the driver’s side. The test forces are similar to those that would result from a frontal offset crash between two vehicles of the same weight, each traveling at just 40 mph.
The original test was launched in 1995 and, at the time, most vehicles were rated poor or marginal. Today, all vehicles earn good ratings but the IIHS believes there is more work to be done. A recent IIHS study of real-world crashes showed that in many cases, rear-seat passengers were more injured than front-seat passengers.
“Not so long ago, rear-seat passengers were less likely to be killed in a frontal offset crash than the driver or front-seat passenger because the biggest safety factor was the crumple of the front occupant compartment, ” says the IIHS. “Now, however, there is hardly any deformation of the occupant compartment in the moderate overlap test. In addition, automakers have added airbags and advanced seat belts to the front seats but not often to the rear. As a result, in vehicles from model year 2007 onward, the risk of a fatal injury is 46% higher for belted occupants in the back seat than in the front.”
The new IIHS test includes a second Hybrid III dummy representing a small woman or 12-year-old child positioned in the second row behind the driver and uses new metrics that focus on injuries most commonly seen in those sitting in the back seat.
“We are excited to launch the first frontal crash test in the US to include a rear occupant dummy,” said IIHS Senior Research Engineer Marcy Edwards, who led the development of the new test. “This is a fantastic opportunity to quickly deliver major safety benefits by adapting technologies that we already know are effective.”
For example, in the front seat, crash tensioners tighten the seat belts as soon as a crash begins so that the occupant’s body begins to decelerate with the vehicle. Then, while the seatbelt prevents the occupant from flying forward, the force limiters allow some of the webbing to come out to reduce the risk of chest injuries, the IIHS explained.
“Rear seat occupants will also benefit from these technologies. Features such as rear seat airbags and self-inflating seat belts can also help reduce the effects of crash forces. But less than half of new cars have advanced rear seat restraint systems.”
The test speed, offset and constraint used in the new test remain the same as those used in the original test. Vehicles still receive ratings of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor but they must meet some new requirements in addition to the previous requirements.
To get a good rating, the measurements recorded by the sensors in the second row dummy must not exceed the limits that indicate an excessive risk of injury to the head, neck, chest, abdomen, or thigh. Video footage and greasepaint applied to the dummy’s head must confirm that the restraints prevented the head from striking the interior of the vehicle or too close to the front seatback and also prevented the dummy’s body from “submarining,” or sliding forward under the lap belt, causing abdominal injuries. A pressure sensor that monitors the position of the shoulder belt on the dummy’s body is used for the first time to help measure the risk of chest injuries.
“In real-world crashes, chest injuries are the most common serious rear-seat injuries for adults, so that’s the main focus,” said Research Engineer Sushant Jagtap, who helped develop the new test.
As expected, the passenger compartments of all 15 small SUVs held up well, and measurements taken from driver dummies indicated little risk of injuries in all but the Equinox, which showed slightly higher risk of injury to the driver’s right leg, says the IIHS.
The well-rated Escape and XC40 also presented little risk of either of those injuries for second-row passengers. There was also no excessive force on the dummy’s chest or shoulder seat belt imbalance and no submerging under the lap belt or side curtain airbag malfunction. However, in the Escape, the rear dummy’s head is closer to the front seatback than is desirable. The rating for the Escape applies to vehicles built after May 2022, when Ford made adjustments to the rear seat belts.
Measurements taken from the head, neck, chest, and lower extremities of the rear dummy also showed minimal risk of injuries in those areas in the RAV4 which was acceptable. However, the lap belt of the second row of the dummy moved from the ideal position on the pelvis to the abdomen, increasing the risk of abdominal injuries. The rear passenger dummy’s head also sank under the side curtain airbag during the crash and appeared between the airbag and the window on rebound.
2021 Subaru Forester
Among the three marginal-rated vehicles, injury measures taken from the second-row dummy indicated a high risk of head and neck injuries in the Q3 and Rogue and a high risk of chest injuries in the Forester. The rear dummy’s lap belt belt slipped from the pelvis to the abdomen in the Q3 and Rogue, and in all three vehicles the rear dummy’s head was too close to the front seatback during the crash.
In all nine poorly rated vehicles, injury measurements indicated a high risk of head, neck, and chest injuries for the rear passenger and the seat belt caused excessive force on the chest of the second passenger. row dummy. On the CR-V and CX-5, the position of the rear dummy’s shoulder belt is also too high, which can make the restraint system less effective.
2021 Jeep Renegade
On the Eclipse Cross, Encore, and Tucson, the rear passenger dummy comes close to contacting the front seatback while on the Encore, Renegade, and Tucson, the rear passenger dummy’s head lands between the side curtain airbag and the window following the initial impact. On the Renegade, this allowed the back of the dummy’s head to make tight contact with the C-pillar that connects the car’s body to the roof behind the rear window.
In the CX-5 and HR-V, submerging the rear passenger dummy caused the lap belt to slide from the pelvis to the abdomen, increasing the likelihood of abdominal injuries.
The IIHS is also running tests on its crash test systems to prepare if, and when, more electric vehicles are on the road, said IIHS Vehicle Research Center Vice President Raul Arbelaez.
The center added heavy steel plates and concrete blocks to add 9,500 pounds to a junker F-150 to see if the propulsion system used in the test could pull a vehicle of that weight, such as EVs. The weight is more than the heaviest vehicle the IIHS has ever tested, Arbelaez said.
“We want to make sure it can perform well and maintain an accurate test speed,” he said. “This crash machine has had no issues performing tests for over 20 years. With electric vehicles coming in and with the weight of the battery driving the mass of the vehicle higher and higher, we want make sure that if and when those vehicles come to market, and some of them already have, we want to know that we can do the testing here.”
The target speed for frontal, small, and overlap crashes on both sides of vehicles is 40 mph. The test proved the system was successful in being able to tow a vehicle at that speed for a frontal crash.
Images
Featured image: The updated IIHS moderate overlap test is the first frontal crash test in the US to include a rear seat dummy. (Credit: IIHS)
The head of the rear passenger dummy moves closer to the front seatback in the 2022 Ford Escape, increasing the risk of head injuries. The rating also applies to 2022-23 models. (Credit: IIHS)
The rear passenger injury dummy values indicate a low risk of head, neck, and chest injuries in the 2021 Volvo XC40. The rating also applies to 2022-23 models. (Credit: IIHS)
The head of the rear passenger dummy comes close to the front seatback, increasing the risk of head injuries in the 2021 Subaru Forester. The rating also applies to 2022-23 models. (Credit: IIHS)
The lap belt of the rear passenger dummy remained in perfect position on the pelvis in the 2021 Jeep Renegade. The rating also applies to 2022-23 models. (Credit: IIHS)
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