If you worry about being T-boned at an intersection by one of those monster sport-utility vehicles, you’re not alone. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a trade group that conducts safety research and lobbies for the insurance industry, says it will conduct crash tests this year to simulate an SUV hitting the side of a passenger car and the sides of other SUVs this year.
The target vehicles will be rammed on the driver’s side at 30 m.p.h. with a 4,200-pound weight, its height corresponding to that of pickups or SUVs.
The federal government conducts side-impact tests, but its striking weight is lower than the institute’s, simulating a car, not a truck.
Further, because of its lower height, the government’s weight strikes a structurally strong portion of the car–just below the doors. The institute’s barrier will hit a weaker portion–in the middle of the driver’s door.
“Female” crash test dummies will be in the seats of the struck vehicles, institute spokesman Russ Rader said. Women are more vulnerable to head injuries in side impacts from trucks, he said, because their heads are more likely to be at the same height as an SUV’s hood. “The hood can intrude into the passenger compartment and result in serious, if not fatal, head injuries,” Rader said.
