Small Cars Aren’t as Safe as You Think - The Detroit Bureau

Small Cars Aren’t as Safe as You Think – The Detroit Bureau

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The Honda Civic was rated “Acceptable” for rear seat safety.

Crash tests of five new small cars by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, reveals that small sedans don’t provide good protection for rear-seat passengers during a moderate overlap front crash.

The IIHS designed to improve crash protection for those seated in the back seats.

Those findings might prove surprising, given that the five small cars garner high ratings for the good protection they offer those in the front seat. For those in the rear seats, tests reveal a different story, which is cause for concern.

What the IIHS found

The IIHS tested five of the bestselling small sedans in America: Honda Civic, Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra, Subaru Crosstrek and the Toyota Corolla.

The circled section highlights the extreme pressure on the torso that shows a high likelihood of injury.

None of the tested sedans returned a “Good” rating; the best of the bunch were the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, which earned an “Acceptable” rating. And it gets worse. The Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra, Subaru Crosstrek are all rated poor.

“These results highlight one of the key reasons that we updated our moderate overlap front crash test,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “In all the small cars we tested, the rear dummy ‘submarined’ under the seat belt, causing the lap belt to ride up onto the abdomen and increasing the risk of internal injuries.”

The details

Both the Toyota and Honda provide “Good” protection for rear seat passengers for the head, neck, chest and thigh during a collision. But the passenger restraints and kinetics were rated “Poor”, as they were for all five small sedans. The Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra, Subaru Crosstrek also provided “Good” thigh protection. In general, the back seats of the Civic and Corolla provide acceptable protection. The rear dummy’s head in the Corolla came close to hitting the front seatback, raising the possibility of a head injury.

Like the Honda, the Toyota was rated “Acceptable” for rear seat passenger safety.

The Kia Forte, and Nissan Sentra delivered “Poor” head and neck protection and “Marginal” thigh protection. The Subaru Crosstrek returned “Marginal” head and neck protection and “Poor” chest protection. This led to a moderate to high risk of head, neck, or chest injuries as evident in the rear-seat dummy.

The test requirements

For a vehicle to be rated “good,” the rear-seat dummy must remain in the correct seating position during the collision without sliding forward beneath the lap belt. Its head must remain safely away from the front seatback and the rest of the interior.

A torso-mounted pressure sensor checks whether the shoulder belt is too high, which can minimize the restraints’ effectiveness. This is addition to other requirements for the structure to remain intact and minimize the risk of injury.

The results don’t mean that parents should let their children ride in the front seat, however, as airbags can cause significant injuries to young children.

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