Video: SUV Crash Tests - Fifth Gear
DESCRIPTION:
For those of you that have a morbid fascination for what happens when a small car hits a larger SUV, this is the Fifth Gear episode for you. It starts out by highlighting the problems that experts have when building cars for safety. Cars that collide on the roadway are rarely the exact same shape or weight, so one car usually has an "advantage" on the other. Also, SUV's tend to have a higher front end than regular cars so they will tend to be pushed on top of the smaller car in a head on collision.
A comparison of two Mondeos going head to head really show off the importance of height in a head on collision. One of the cars is loaded down with passengers and luggage, causing it to ride approximately two inches lower than the other. This car suffers massive intrusions into the passenger cabin space, while the unladen car has a relatively intact cabin. The height difference in SUV and car crashes are even more pronounced, which makes the chance of injury even higher for head on collisions.
In recent years, there has been legislation for new cars to pass additional tests that were designed specifically to make smaller cars more safe against SUV's. Bigger cars have also been engineered to provide additional safety, by placing their crash structures lower in the bodywork. While the SUV's may look like they ride a lot higher, their structural bits and pieces are not too far off from a regular cars.
Another type of accident that is extremely deadly is the side impact crash. In a disturbing video, we see a crash rig (designed to simulate an SUV) run into the side of a Toyota Corolla (without side airbags) at 31 MPH. The height of the test rig causes the crash dummy's head to make direct contact with it's "hood". Another test is staged where an older SUV runs into the side of a Honda Civic - Check out the video to see what happened to the crash dummys.
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POSTED ON:
10/22/2008
