When shopping for a new family car, one of the first things many parents research are safety scores from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
NHTSA’s five-star crash test scores and IIHS’ crash tests and other safety information can give parents a better idea of how well a vehicle can protect their family in an accident. If you’re researching child safety, however, neither agency uses child-size dummies in car crash tests. That void can make it difficult for parents to know how safe their child will be in a crash.
Most safety scores from the IIHS relate solely to a car’s overall ability to protect all occupants. This means that the car is engineered so its structure doesn’t intrude into the cabin. “Structure is probably the most relevant to kids,” says Chris Sherwood, a child restraint researcher at IIHS. In frontal crashes, structural intrusion is less likely to affect children because they’re in the back seat, Sherwood says, but that does become an issue in side-impact tests.
That’s why many carmakers offer side airbags, which help protect occupants in a rollover accident and side-impact crash.
“Side torso airbags developed for adult-size people can double as head protection for children,” says Sherwood. “Plus, there’s no evidence that there’s any sort of risk (using rear-seat side torso airbags).” Front airbags can hurt children because the energy required to quickly inflate airbags, especially on older model vehicles, can cause injuries.
Side torso airbags aren’t required by law, and even some of the most expensive vehicles don’t offer them standard for all rows of seating. The Volvo XC60, for instance, comes standard with side-curtain airbags, but doesn’t offer side torso airbags. On the other hand, the Chevrolet Cruze comes standard with both side curtain and side torso airbags.
NHSTA tests child seats by placing a child-sized dummy into the car seat and rocketing the seat itself to 30 mph and then a sudden stop using a sled. The agency also evaluates how easy car seats are to install, including how comprehensive each seat’s instructions and labels are. Their new small adult female crash test dummy also simulates the size of a child over the age of 13, who’s old and large enough to be out of car seats.
For now, the IIHS only tests for “static belt fit,” or how well the car seat positions the seatbelt across a child’s body. But Sherwood says that Ford, the Society of Automotive Engineers and other medical research institutions have teamed up to create a more “biofidelic” crash test dummy for more realistic booster seat testing. These dummies include a force sensor located in the abdomen and include a more life-like pelvic bone, to further test the interactions between the booster seat, the seat belt and child. According to Sherwood, this new dummy will be used in laboratory testing during the next 12 months, and could be used for additional research depending on the results. Between the IIHS’ and NHTSA’s new dummies, car shoppers will soon have more information that will help them make informed purchases.
If you’re looking for the safest vehicle for your family, consider larger cars or SUVs. They have the lowest driver death rates, according to the IIHS.
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