IIHS, Insurance Institute, Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), recognizing the limitations of the full-frontal crash test used by NHTSA, uses a frontal offset crash test similar to tests used by the Australian and European New Car Assessment Programs (Euro-NCAP and ANCAP). Offset tests challenge a vehicle's structure more than full-frontal tests do, providing more information on passenger safety in the most common kinds of collisions.

The IIHS begain using its 40% offset, 40 mph test in 1995, ranking results into four categories based on the amount of protection from serious injury.

	Good protection from serious injury
	Acceptable protection from serious injury
	Marginal protection from serious injury
	Poor protection from serious injury

In the Institute's 40 mph offset test, 40 percent of the total width of each vehicle strikes a barrier on the driver side. The barrier's deformable face is made of aluminum honeycomb, which makes the forces in the test similar to those involved in a frontal offset crash between two vehicles of the same weight, each going just less than 40 mph. This means test results can be compared only among vehicles of similar weight. Like full-width crash test results, the results of offset tests cannot be used to compare vehicle performance across weight classes.

Drivers of vehicles that earn good ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's 40 mph frontal offset crash test are much less likely to die in serious frontal crashes out on the highways, compared with drivers of vehicles rated poor.

For the new study relating vehicles' crash test ratings to real-world fatality risk, Institute researchers examined 12 years of records from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a federal database of all fatal crashes on U.S. roads, and identified the crash-involved vehicles that had been rated in the offset test.

In the most relevant comparison, researchers compared fatality risks in crashes in which two vehicles similar in type hit head on (car to car, pickup to pickup, etc.). After controlling for differences in vehicle weight, driver age and gender, and other factors, the researchers found that drivers of vehicles with good ratings were about 74 percent less likely to die than drivers of vehicles rated poor. The drivers of vehicles rated acceptable or marginal were about 45 percent less likely to die than drivers of the poor-rated vehicles they crashed into.

The results of the new study are consistent with previous research correlating crash test performance and real-world injury and survival rates. A study of cars rated by the European New Car Assessment Program, which uses a frontal offset crash test similar to the Institute's, found that drivers of cars with four-star ratings were about 30 percent less likely to be severely injured in real crashes than drivers of cars with only one star.

FRONTAL CRASHWORTHINESS RATINGS
Number of vehicles in offset crash tests, by yr. test results were released

For more information on offset crash tests please read the following research paper written by Australian safety expert Michael Paine: "Offset Crash Tests"

New IIHS Side Impact Ratings - The Institute's side impact crash test represents what happens when a passenger vehicle is struck by a pickup truck or SUV. (Unfortunately there are no federal guidelines requiring that vehicles withstand a side-impact with a pickup truck or SUV, so until NHTSA mandates such protection, most vehicles will continue to perform poorly in the new IIHS test.)

To best protect yourself, we recommend that you only consider new or used vehicles equipped with side airbags.

Compared with NHTSA's test, the Institute test produces higher risks for occupants of side-struck vehicles: In the Institute test, a moving deformable barrier strikes the driver side of a passenger vehicle at 31 mph. The barrier weighs 3,300 pounds and has a front end shaped to simulate the front end of a typical pickup or SUV. In each side-struck vehicle are two instrumented dummies the size of a short (5th percentile) female or a 12-year-old child, one positioned in the driver seat and one in the rear seat behind the driver. This is the first consumer test program to use a dummy that represents small women.

The federal government's side impact test uses a barrier representing a car's front end. In this test, there's no chance that the heads of the dummies in a struck vehicle will be hit by the intruding barrier. But in serious real-world side impacts, people's heads often are struck by intruding vehicles, especially if the striking vehicle is a pickup or SUV with a high hood. The Institute's barrier is taller than the government's to mimic the high hood heights of SUVs and pickups.

	Good Frontal Offset & Good Side Impact
	Good Frontal Offset & Acceptable Side Impact
	Good Frontal Offset & Marginal Side Impact
	Good Frontal Offset & Poor Side Impact
	Acceptable Frontal Offset & Good Side Impact
	Acceptable Frontal Offset & Acceptable Side Impact
	Acceptable Frontal Offset & Marginal Side Impact
	Acceptable Frontal Offset & Poor Side Impact
	Marginal Frontal Offset & Good Side Impact
	Marginal Frontal Offset & Acceptable Side Impact
	Marginal Frontal Offset & Marginal Side Impact
	Marginal Frontal Offset & Poor Side Impact
	Poor Frontal Offset & Good Side Impact
	Poor Frontal Offset & Acceptable Side Impact
	Poor Frontal Offset & Marginal Side Impact
	Poor Frontal Offset & Poor Side Impact

Side airbags are reducing risks in real-world crashes: Recent IIHS research shows that side airbags with head protection are reducing deaths by about 45 percent among drivers of cars struck on the driver side. Side airbags that protect the chest and abdomen, but not the head, also are reducing deaths but are less effective (about a 10 percent reduction in deaths). Before the availability of head-protecting airbags, there was virtually nothing to prevent people's heads from being struck by intruding vehicles or rigid objects like trees or poles in serious side impacts.

Bigger share of the crash problem: Driver death rates in frontal crashes declined by about half from 1980-81 to 2000-01. Meantime, reductions in death rates in side impacts haven't been as dramatic. The result is that during 2000-01 side impacts accounted for 37 percent of driver deaths overall, up from 26 percent in 1980-81. In crashes involving a car and another passenger vehicle, about half of the car driver deaths in 2000-01 occurred in side impacts. This compares with about a third of the deaths during 1980-81. This is because of significant improvements in frontal crash protection without corresponding improvements in side impact protection. For example, frontal airbags are standard in new vehicles. The structural designs of vehicles are better than they used to be. More motorists are using safety belts, which are more effective in frontal crashes than in side impacts.

Growing sales of SUVs and pickup trucks have exacerbated height mismatches among passenger vehicles, and these mismatches increase the risk of serious head injuries among occupants of side-struck vehicles. The effect of the changing vehicle mix and changing risks for occupants in struck vehicles is apparent in the fact that 70 percent of driver deaths in passenger vehicles struck on the driver side by other passenger vehicles during 1980-81 occurred when the striking vehicle was another car. Thirty percent occurred when the striking vehicle was a pickup or SUV. By 2000-01 these percentages had almost reversed. Fifty-seven percent of the car driver deaths involved striking pickups or SUVS, and as the numbers of SUVs and pickups continue to increase so will this percentage.

Head Restraints - Headrests are supposed to provide protection against whiplash in rear-end collisions. In reality most headrests provide little to no protection. European automobiles rate far better than domestic or Asian models in this area (see the IIHS Website for head restraint ratings for vehicles sold in the US). The US DOT required their installation in 1967, but haven't provided updated modern standards for their successful implementation. An effective headrest is directly behind the centerline of the head and positioned no more than a couple of inches away.

	Good protection from serious injury
	Acceptable protection from serious injury
	Marginal protection from serious injury
	Poor protection from serious injury

The IIHS determines whether the front-seat head restraints can be positioned behind and close enough to the back of the head to limit relative head and torso movement (whiplash) in rear-end collisions. A restraint needs to be as high as the head's center of gravity, or 7 cm (3 inches) from the top of the head. The distance from the head restraint to the back of the head should be less than 7 cm (3 inches) as well. Backsets of more than 10 centimeters (4 inches) have been associated with increased symptoms of neck injury in crashes. Certain models offer different seating options so doublecheck the IIHS ratings if you have optional seating.

The IIHS website provides a comprehensive list of head restraint ratings for North American vehicles. Since over 70% of the vehicles they tested got failing marks, we have decided NOT to include the ratings in our results. However a link is provided on each page that will take you to the IIHS head restraint ratings for each manufacturer (click on the manufacturer's name under the ratings key). Suffice it to say, an overwhelming majority of the highest rated head restraint systems were only available on vehicles manufactured in Europe. IIHS ratings are good predictors of how well people will be protected in rear-end crashes - drivers of vehicles with top-rated restraints are less likely to suffer neck injuries than those with poorly rated restraints.