Car Safety Ratings: What Methods Are Used to Make Such Determinations?
Car accidents can result in permanent injuries and, at times, can result in fatalities. Those hurt by collisions can get help from a Colorado Springs personal injury lawyer to pursue a claim to receive compensation if someone caused an accident to happen. Far too often, negligent drivers behave in an unsafe way and cause serious damage to innocent victims – and these drivers should be held accountable.
While it is impossible to prevent accidents caused by the dangerous actions of unsafe drivers, you can take steps to reduce the chances that a collision will be a fatal one. One of the ways that you can reduce the likelihood of being killed in a car accident is to choose a car that has received top safety ratings.
But, how are safety ratings actually determined? Business Insider has the answers about how Insurance Institute for Highway Safety assigns a rating to vehicles that consumers can use to decide which cars are most likely to be safest.
How Car Safety Ratings Are Determined
According to Business Insider, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety takes into account four major factors when the Institute is assigning a crash test rating to vehicles that are sold to consumers. IIHS considers:
- How crash test dummies fare in a collision
- The amount of survival space in a vehicle
- The performance of the car's air bags
- How well the seatbelt works to secure and protect vehicle occupants
When testing a vehicle, IIHS conducts a series of different crash tests to see how the car does in a frontal crash with different levels of impact; as well as how a car does in a side impact crash and a rear impact accident.
Within the vehicle when the crash occurs is a crash test dummy that has sensors where major organs are in people, as well as paint on the face, hands, and legs. The sensors detect how much the organs would be affected by a crash while the paint is used to determine if the face, hands, or legs come into contact with hard surfaces because of the collision.
The survival space is the space where occupants are after a crash happens. More space is better, because the airbags and other safety devices in most vehicles work better if there is ample space surrounding the vehicle occupants. More space also means a reduced likelihood of crushing injuries.
And tests on seat belts and airbags are obvious- the goal is to see if these safety devices help to reduce the likelihood of an accident by working as expected and preventing occupants from flying from the car or striking hard objects in a dangerous way.
While a safer car can help reduce the likelihood of a devastating or fatal injury in a motor vehicle accident, there is no guarantee that you will survive a crash unscathed in even the safest of vehicles. If you or someone you love is hurt or killed in a car accident that was caused by the negligence of another motorist, a Colorado Springs personal injury lawyer should be consulted for help.
