What were similarities and differences between the structural damage endured by the new and the old cars? watching car crash tests is horrifying
and mesmerizing in equal measure here
we're seeing the difference that two
decades of ever improving car design has
made to safety
Europe's car safety assessment program
euro end cap is 20 years old and to mark
the occasion it's staged a test it put a
rover 100 from 1997 up against it to
modern city car equivalent the Honda
Jazz and pitted both of them against a
metal barrier at 40 miles an hour
although it has seemingly modern safety
features like airbags
the rover 100 earned just one star out
of five
the driver dummy rattles around the
inflated bag his legs would have been
crushed he may have suffered head
injuries and the body and door of the
car are so twisted it might be tough to
get him out the Honda Jazz driving dummy
fares much better improvements in the
structure of the car and tag like side
curtain airbags keep him in place and
protected that car gets five stars in
the US the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety or IIHS painted a more
dramatic picture of car safety evolution
when it smashed a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air
into a 2009 Chevy Malibu
both end up looking like mangled metal
but the newer car disperses the energy
of the impact in a totally different way
instead of a steering column slamming
into his body the driver of the Malibu
gets cushioned and contained now that
they're nearly out of places to stuff
more airbags engineers are focused on
active safety using tools like automatic
braking to dodge crashes in the first
place until computer-controlled
self-driving cars can actually deliver
on the promise of making all crashes a
thing of the past trials like these are
the best tools automotive designers have
to test the machines supposed to keep us
safe
and these head-to-heads
show their efforts for working
One similarity between the structural damage endured by the new and old cars is that both suffered significant damage in the crashes. Both cars had twisted bodies and mangled metal after the impact.
However, there were also differences in the structural damage. In the case of the rover 100 and Honda Jazz, the old car had much worse damage. The body and door of the rover 100 were so twisted that it would be difficult to extract the driver from the vehicle. On the other hand, the Honda Jazz had improvements in its structure, as well as side curtain airbags that kept the driver in place and protected.
Similarly, the crash test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that the 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air and 2009 Chevy Malibu both ended up looking like mangled metal. However, the newer car, the Malibu, dispersed the energy of the impact in a different way. Instead of a steering column slamming into the driver's body, the driver of the Malibu was cushioned and contained.
These tests demonstrate the improvements in car design and safety over the years. The newer cars show better structural integrity and measures in place to protect the occupants during crashes.