New Car Safety

[TomSeller]

I had not seen this before. In talking to medics and highway police It is pretty amazing the accidents people walk away from these days. In this simulation it was expected that the driver of the 59 would have died, while the driver of the 09 would have suffered a foot or knee injury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ptUrQOMPs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[Pilot]

Yes, big improvements have been made. But don't put too much faith in the crash test info--they don't take into effect the different weights of the cars that crash in the real world. Car weight is still one of the biggest factors. Virtually all cars have air bags, 3 point belts, door impact beams, etc. But they don't all weigh the same. Compare crash test info only for cars of similar weight.

 

[TomSeller]

Yes, big improvements have been made. But don't put too much faith in the crash test info--they don't take into effect the different weights of the cars that crash in the real world. Car weight is still one of the biggest factors. Virtually all cars have air bags, 3 point belts, door impact beams, etc. But they don't all weigh the same. Compare crash test info only for cars of similar weight.

Correct, but the two cars in this case were fairly equally matched weight wise.

"How can this be? Just the mass and weight of the old car must account for something, right? Well, not as much as you might think. First of all, the Bel Air really didn’t weigh that much more than the Malibu. The manufacturer’s curb weight of the Bel Air was 3,615. The published curb weight of the Malibu was 3,436. A mere 179 lbs is probably not the weight differential you were expecting"

Source http://www.examiner.com/article/195...sh-test-as-seen-on-abc-s-good-morning-america