Passengers in cars with poor side-impact safety ratings are far more likely to die in the event of a car crash.
A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analyzed every crash involving vehicles with side air bags in the U.S. from 2008 and 2009, and found that people suffering a collision in a car with a side-impact rating of “good” were 70 percent more likely to survive than those in cars with the “poor” rating.
Even cars with just “acceptable” or “marginal” side-impact ratings appeared to provide far more safety than the “poor” vehicles. People riding in cars with “acceptable” side-impact ratings were 64 percent less likely to perish, while those in “marginal” cars had a 49 percent lower likelihood of dying, than those in the “poor” vehicles.
“This was our first look at how our ratings correlate with actual crash data since we started side tests in 2003, and the numbers confirm that these are meaningful ratings,” said David Zuby, the Insurance Institute’s chief research officer.
Car companies have improved markedly in their side-impact ratings in the past decade. In the most recent round of tests, 78 percent of cars had good ratings, while the corresponding figure in 2003 was 17 percent.
“Automakers have worked hard to bring consumers the technology that helps side air bags save lives,” Wade Newton, of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Detroit News.
As of the 2010 model year, nearly all car companies install air bags in cars and light trucks sold to individual consumers. The federal government, however, is requiring further improvements over a five-year period starting in 2013 to prevent passenger ejections during rollovers.
The Insurance Institute, an industry group that spotlights auto safety issues, includes side-impact testing in its “top safety picks.”
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