Some small cars fare poorly in side-impact
crash test

Wherever two roads meet, so can two cars. And the results are often deadly.

A new side impact crash test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) — a non-profit group funded by insurance companies — hopes to improve auto safety and reduce claims. Experts at the Institute say this new test was particularly tough. And the results seem to prove them right.

It's called a T-bone — a blow from the side, often caught on red light cameras. A car comes from nowhere and slams into you at an intersection. Side crashes are the second leading cause of death and serious injuries on our roads and more and more of them these days involve trucks and SUVS hitting small cars — often with catastrophic results.

That's why Brian O'Neill of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and his team have designed a new side crash test. They think it reflects the reality of today's roads better than the government's test - which every vehicle must pass to be sold in the United States.

"This is the government's barrier," says O'Neill as he shows us the barrier used in the old test. "It represents the front end of a car. It was designed in the early 1980s. In contrast, we've chosen a barrier to represent vehicles that are very common in today's fleets, SUVs and pick-up trucks — taller, higher, and contoured.

Another difference — the government uses a tall, heavy man in its test. The Institute puts a small woman or teenager in the front and rear seats.

It all adds up to a difficult test — one that is especially hard for small cars, like the 13 popular models in this latest round of Institute tests. They may be inexpensive and fuel efficient, but O'Neill believes that his test shows they are not as safe as they could be.

"This test is tough for small cars," he says.

First up was the 2005 Dodge Neon. The barrier — which simulates an SUV — is coming down the runway at 31 miles an hour.

"The dummy's head is struck by the barrier," says O'Neill as he watches the test. "We get high forces on the dummy's torso and pelvis. We're talking about skull fracture and brain injuries -- multiple rib fractures, punctured lungs, lacerated spleens. Plus, probably a fractured pelvis. This would be very, very tough to survive."

The Neon is rated "poor," the Institute's lowest rating.

After two more tests and looking at the measurements from those sophisticated dummies, O'Neill says two other cars have similar problems — the 2004 Nissan Sentra and the 2005 Mazda 3. Both are rated poor.

The Institute found two other cars did just a little better, the 2005 Ford Focus and the 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer.

"What we have here is contact between the head and barrier," says O'Neill as he watches the Ford Focus test. "Very serious."

But both cars still get rated "poor."

"To get a 'poor' rating, we are saying that people in a crash of that severity would sustain serious and life threatening injuries."

O'Neill says one important way to improve safety is to add airbags with head protection to the sides of the cars. That gives an extra cushion between the people inside the car and what is hitting them.

The Institute tests cars only with their standard equipment — and just five of these small cars come with standard side airbags. The rest make side airbags available, as a $400-700 option, but even those airbags aren't always enough to raise a car's rating in this test.

"This dummy's in trouble," says O'Neill as he watches the 2005 Saturn ION, without side airbags.

Saturn wanted to know how its ION with optional side head protecting airbags would do, so it paid the Institute to do another test. The airbags helped, but not enough.     

Just because a car has a side impact curtain that comes down to protect the head doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great car.

"It means it will protect you in some crashes. But in a crash this severe, when you've got too much collapse of the structure, the airbag is not going to be as effective as it would be had that structure not collapsed."

So, with and without side airbags, the Saturn ION gets a "poor" rating.

Surprisingly, all the cars that come with side airbags as standard equipment fare poorly — O'Neill says the 2005 Suzuki Aerio's airbag doesn't protect the head. And the others? Their structure isn't strong enough to keep the simulated SUV from barging right into the car. The 2005 Suzuki Forenza, the 2005 Hyundai Elantra, the 2005 Volkswagen New Beetle 2-door and the 2004 Kia Spectra — all get "poor" ratings.

"We are disappointed," sums up O'Neill.

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