What is wrong with you ? Stop with the morbid accident stories . People get enough of that on their daily news feeds . You are not going to change anything .
Itâs about the only thing that actually can change things. You getting up set about it only confirms this.
They do these stupid tests where they take a flimsy car that is a decade or two older than the other test vehicle, make sure to not have the optional airbags, and then crash them in to ecah other. Then they show how much worse the old car is. They donât ever include any crash test dummy data. They only say it is worse because it is more smashed than the newer car. I can show you a bunch of pictures of fatal head on accidents where there is minimal intrusion in to the crashed car. Going from 60 MPH to 0 in 3 feet and bottoming out the restraint system is what killed the person. Having a strong vehicle didnât help.
If the daily news feed said that a typical vehicle is only made to protect a 170 pound person at a speed up to 40 MPH, it would be different. The average person has no idea that this is the case.
That may have been the case 20 years ago, when the average man weighed about that much, but I very seriously doubt itâs the case today. Regardless, even being in a 1980âs Chevette, which will fold up like an empty soda can upon impact is better than being on a motorcycle, and yet millions of people happily get on a motorcycle every single day.
Does the crash rating company mentioned here has a UI to probe - I went there and could not pull crash rating.
What are some best crash rating site that one can lookup - the one I found is IIHS.org?
Have a look at the insurance Institute for highway safety. They have huge amounts of data. Below is a screen grab of just some random car I picked. I think itâs a Honda Accord. Those are all of the forces that were measured by the drivers test dummy.
This is just one example. They also have the information for the passenger test dummies as well.
Click on where it says âtechnical information for this testâ and it will show the information.
I guess I have to ask since you didnât say whether they were wearing seatbelts or not? You have to be belted in order for everything else to protect you.
Contrary to many peoples understanding of the safety systems, you need to have the belts on for the airbags to work properly because they time your forward momentum to meet the airbag at a specific point without the belt on you might hit the air back to you soon or too late or in some cars, the airbag simply wonât activate.
Also, no mention of how fast the vehicle was driving?
A car can only manage so much impact force. And those forces go up exponentially even with small increments in speed the difference between being killed and not being killed is down to as little as 1 mph.
Btw, crashing into a stationary object at 60 mph head on is exacty equivalent to the force of falling nose first into the ground from a 10 story building!
Ncap is the Euro/UK equivalent of IIHS or NHTSA for crash testing, The Volvo 960 is too old to be in their database, at least from what iâve found.
Euro NCAP | The European New Car Assessment Programme
Thank you @wolyrobb - I now have 3 sites to compare!
You rock!
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For crying out loud ! Just buy a vehicle that meets your needs , wants and budget . There is no such thing as a superior safe vehicle .
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Iâd say - A lot.
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Hilarious indeed:)
When I was getting ready to buy a car after getting my first job, I was researching and knew Volvo was the safest car. Then there was this event - I guy fell from the parking lot (multi story) sitting in his Volvo and died. I didnât need any more reason to look into a Volvo.
I really donât know what you are trying to say . Do you actually think any vehicle would have protected someone in that example ?
How many years ago was that?
30 or 40 years ago, that was certainly true. However, over the past couple of decades, other manufacturers finally figured out how to make their cars safer, and at this point, Volvos are no safer than other makes.
Point taken - I meant to say âVolvo came in my mind when I was considering safer carsâ. Perhaps watched a lot of TV ads as I was growing up!
Just reminds me of howdy doody and wonder bread builds strong bodie 12 ways, or Tony the Tiger says Frosted Flakes are great, or ovalrine etc. etc. we learned at a very young age that commercials are worthless forms of information. Yeah I convinced my mom to buy a jar of ovaltine and it was terrible. Learned my lesson cheap.
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When they started that ad campaign in the early-mid '50s, they claimed that it âbuilds strong bodies 8 waysâ. I guess that this spurious claim wasnât quite fantastic enough because a few years later, they claimed that it âbuilds strong bodies 12 waysâ.
And, hereâs a fun fact: Ever since the Continental Baking Company went belly-up, Wonder Bread has been made by the Bimbo Company, which is based in Mexico. (no, thatâs not a joke!)
I wonder if they will now claim that it⊠makes strong bimbos⊠12 ways?
Yeah I remember when it when from 8 to 12. They said they added more ingredients. Probably preservatives.
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My dad said it was called âWonder Breadâ b/c after you ate it, you wondered where it went? ⊠lol ⊠Personally I enjoy a slice of Wonder Bread or other store-brand of big selling white bread, makes for a tasty snack. Post-Covid, no bread purchases; Iâve been making my own bread, even tastier. Downside, home made bread doesnât stay soft nearly as long as Wonder.
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The Hybrid III 172 pound 5â9" Dummy is what is still used in the frontal crash tests today.
What crash rating company are you referencing?
They dummy data is the only useful thing they produce. The whole purpose of IIHS to promote reducing injuries in crashes more than saving lives. The true purpose is to reduce insurance payouts. They rate vehicles by 4 different levels, from Good to Poor. Ifyour lower leg would be broken in an accident, I believe the vehicle can get a Poor rating, even though this has little to do with survival.
The IIHS helped bring attention to some weak vehicles that were able to do well on the 35 MPH NHTSA frontal crash test, but failed the ~38 MPH 40% overlap head on crash simulation that the IIHS introduced. But this test has now done a great deal of harm. Car makers have now optimized their cars to do well when crashing head on at 38 MPH with a 5â9" 172 pound crash dummy. Cars are excellent at this type of crash, but the cars that were acceptable on the 40% overlap test are now worse at other types of frontal crashes. Such as having a heavier driver, speeds above 40 MPH, and angular or oblique crashes, and small overlap crashes (prior to the indroduction of the small overlap IIHS test).
I assume youâre referring to the Volvo S40 versus Mercedes head on crash that I was talking about, but I couldnât find the article again. I donât know if seat belts were worn, but I doubt it would have matter much. I estimate the speed being between 55 and 65 MPH. The steering wheel on the Mercedes convertible car was smashed in probably 1 foot. The front end of the Volvo was broken away but there was minimal intrusion in to the passenger compartment. The driver of the Mercedes and all 5 in the Volvo were killed. My point is that the rigid structure of the Volvo is what killed the other 4 people. It may look great on a crash test, but a person canât survive such forces. In a softer car the driver would be smashed but the reduced crash forces would allow the other passengers a chance to survive.
Theyâve figured out how to do the bare minimum to score well on the various crash tests.
Here is a good test from Fith Gear. The drivers in this crash would be killed for sure, but the other passengers would likely survive. What they donât say is that in stronger modern cars, especially the compact ones with short front ends, that the crash forces wolud be so much higher that the passengers would die.
The side impact tests from NHTSA, NCAP, and IIHS are good. The IIHS moving crash barries poorly represents a real vehicle though, being full width. A real vehicle has pressure points and a bumper that is typically much more narrow than the width of the vehicle. They also adjust the height of it according to the height of the test vehicle, which does not happen in the real world. The IIHS has introduced a new side impact test with a somewhat more realistic barrier and it is done at higher speeds.
The frontal crash ratings from IIHS and NHTSA are just about worthless. The NHTSA test is only 35 MPH which every vehicle since the 80s has passed. The IIHS only simplates a ~38 MPH overlap crash. There hasnât been a vehicle since the 90s that failed that test. They now do a 25% overlap crash at 40 MPH. This is the only frontal crash test that they currently do that is worth anything, since it is closer to an oblique crash test. Many vehicles failed it, especially since they were actually made to do worse in this type of crash in order to do well on the less severe 40% overlap crash and get that Good IIHS rating.
Look up the following things:
CRASH TEST 40MPH VS 56MPH - AAA and IIHS did this. Most cars today wonât protect you above 45 MPH in a crash if you weigh more than 150 pounds. Your weight must be reduced exponentially as the crash speed exceeds 45 MPH.
Volvo XC90 Frontal Offset Crash Test at 80 Km/h (50 Mph) - Volvo didnât compromise higher speed crash protection to do well on the ~38 MPH IIHS test like most other auto makers did.
Look up âoblique crash testâ - This kind of test simulations what commonly happens in real world head on accidents. The non at fault driver steers away from the situation and gets hit at an angle.
So if you want a safe car to drive in the city, look for good ratigs for side impact and small overlap. For divided highways, look for good ratings concerning roll over.
To be safe for highway speed head on collisions, youâll have a tough time finding a stock vehicle that well protect you if you weigh more than 120 pounds. Avoid anything with a short distance between the steering wheel and the front bumper. Some luxury European cars may have self adusting seat belt load limiters and stronger dual stage airbags to protect people over 120 pounds in highways speed crashes. Your tyical Honda, GM, Ford and Toyota doesnât.
How about telling what you drive and how much you weigh ? Just wondering if you take your own biased opinions.
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