Just another day at the crash factory
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety creates innovation from destruction
RUCKERSVILLE, VA.— On a bucolic, winding road in these rolling hills of Virginia lurks a facility dedicated to destroying cars. No, it is not a wrecking yard. But a wrecked 1959 Chevy Bel Air is the first thing you see through the front doors of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) vehicle research centre.
The Bel Air is crumpled, mangled and torn. Its dummy driver would have died on the scene.
A couple feet away rests the car it crashed into, a 2009 Chevy Malibu. The Malibu is damaged, but still has a windshield and a relatively intact driver compartment. Its dummy would have walked away.
The institute (more familiar as IIH to anyone who sees car ads) smashed the two generations of Chevrolet to show the safety advances cars have made — in part due to its influence — over the 50 years it’s been testing them.
IIHS crashes about $4 million (U.S.) worth of vehicles each year in the quest to identify the cars and light trucks that are safest to drive. It does so independently, funded by the insurers who support its research. Auto makers are not involved in selecting tested vehicles, nor do they provide them.
IIHS recently opened its doors to a group of Canadian journalists, at the suggestion of Subaru Canada. A good crash test rating from IIHS is worth a lot to a manufacturer. Subaru is so happy with its current lineup that it decided to pull back the curtain and take us backstage to see the magic.
Seven of the company’s 2014 models have received IIHS’s Top Pick rating. To qualify, a vehicle must earn a “good” or “acceptable” rating for small overlap crash protection, as well as “good” ratings in IIHS’s moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests.
Three 2015 models have also been recognized with the highest rating possible for front crash prevention, thanks to Subaru’s Eyesight technology.
Witnessing a crash is the highlight of a trip to IIHS. We got to see the 2015 Mazda 6 — and its dummy driver — go up against a concrete barrier in the frontal small overlap crash.
The hushed hall is bathed in klieg lights and a warning beeper is all you hear, until bang! The car is slammed at 40 mph (64.4 km/h) into the wall. Cameras capture every angle of the impact. Silence resumes as engi- neers and technicians flock to the wreck, even before pieces have stopped flying.
It takes IIHS engineers about a week to analyze the 40 data points the crash test dummy records.
IIHS is proud of its role in enhancing automotive safety and innovation. According to operations vicepresident Raul Arbeleaz, the institute’s influence has been felt globally over the past 55 years.
Although manufacturers have no say in the cars selected, they are invited to send engineers to watch the tests.
But some of them may be taking the quest for ratings a bit too far. Arbelaez said that for the first time, IIHS will be replicating the front overlap crash on the passenger side of two cars. They received improved ratings after a poor result in a previous generation test and IIHS engineers believe the cars were redesigned only on the driver’s side, simply to receive a better rating.
Both generations of each suspect car will be subjected to the moderate and small overlap crashes on the passenger side, to see if the suspicion bears out. Ultimately, whatever the motivation for an improvement, it’s how the dummy fares that matters. As Arbelaez said: “What benefits the dummies tends to benefit occupants in the real world.” Emily Atkins is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. For this story, she was a guest of the manufacturer. For more Toronto Star automotive coverage, go to thestar.com/autos. To reach Wheels Editor Norris McDonald, nmcdonald@thestar.ca
Although manufacturers have no say in the cars selected, they are invited to send engineers to watch the tests