Most Small SUVs Flunk Side-Impact Test

June 17, 2003
Seven small SUVs earned poor ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's first side impact crash tests. Only two -- the Subaru Forester and the Ford Escape with optional side airbags -- earned good ratings.

The Subaru Forester is the only one of the 12 small SUVs to earn a good rating in not only the side impact crashworthiness evaluation but also the Institute's frontal offset crash test. The Institute's side impact crash test represents what happens when a passenger vehicle is struck by a pickup truck or SUV.

Seven small SUVS earned the lowest rating of poor:

• Ford Escape without optional side airbags;
• Toyota RAV4;
• Suzuki Grand Vitara/Vitara/Chevrolet Tracker;
• Land Rover Freelander;
• Mitsubishi Outlander;
• Saturn VUE;
• Honda Element

Rated marginal were:

• Jeep Wrangler;
• Honda CR-V

One model was rated acceptable:

• Hyundai Santa Fe

The new side impact test represents what happens when a passenger vehicle is struck in the side by a pickup truck or SUV at about 30 mph. For eight years the Institute has been providing comparative rankings of passenger vehicles based on performance in frontal offset crash tests at 40 mph. Now most new passenger vehicles are being designed to earn good ratings in this test.

"Our side impact crash test is severe," says Institute president Brian O'Neill. "Given the designs of today's vehicles, it's unlikely that people in real-world crashes as severe as this test would emerge uninjured. But with good side impact protection, people should be able to survive crashes of this severity without serious injuries."

O'Neill adds that he expects this new crashworthiness evaluation program to influence consumers' car-buying choices. "This is what happened with our frontal crash test results, and now we expect consumers will use the new test results to help them choose vehicles with good occupant protection in both front and side impacts."

Because consumers pay attention to the Institute's crash test results, automakers are expected to upgrade their vehicles' side impact protection, just as they've upgraded the protection their vehicles offer in frontal crashes.

"Ideally, passenger vehicles should be good performers in both tests -- a double good," O'Neill says.

The configuration of the Institute's side impact test is a 31 mph "t-bone" -- a perpendicular impact into the driver side of a passenger vehicle. The moving deformable barrier that strikes the test vehicle weighs 3,300 pounds and has a front end shaped to simulate the typical front end of a pickup or SUV. In each side-struck vehicle are two instrumented dummies, one in the driver seat and one in the rear seat behind the driver. These dummies are the size of a short (5th percentile) female or a 12-year-old child.

"This is the first U.S. consumer information test program to use a dummy that represents small females," O'Neill points out.

Forester is best performer and Outlander is worst: The side airbag in the Subaru Forester kept the injury measures recorded on the driver dummy relatively low. The dummy in the rear seat also recorded relatively low measures, although its head did hit the pillar behind the back door -- an area required by federal standard to limit head impact forces. There was somewhat less intrusion into the Forester than into several of the other small SUVs the Institute tested.

In contrast, the Mitsubishi Outlander was the worst performer in the side impact test. There was more intrusion into the occupant compartment than in many of the other vehicles tested. The Outlander that was tested didn't have side airbags. The barrier struck the driver dummy's head, and the injury measures recorded on the head as well as on the torso and pelvis were very high.

The value of side airbags was shown in the tests of the Ford Escape with and without side airbags.

"There was a huge difference in the results," O'Neill says. "The driver dummy with the airbag to protect its head and torso recorded low injury measures, while high measures were recorded on the driver dummy in the Escape without side airbags. Even though the Escape with side airbags was a good performer in this test, it was only marginal in our frontal offset test."

For more information, see the IIHS Web site.

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