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Highway Safety and Crash Testing Organizations

How the NHTSA and IIHS help

Henry Bliss stepped off a New York trolley in 1899 and was hit and killed by an automobile, becoming the first North American motor vehicle fatality. Since that time, over 20 million people worldwide have died in traffic accidents. Government and private groups work worldwide to get consumers information about the safest cars to drive and safe driver strategies to stem the growing accident statistics.

Early Testing

Automakers began researching how to make cars safer back in 1930, when they crashed cars carrying cadavers to measure the effects on vehicle occupants. Cadavers couldn't tell researchers whether a passenger could survive a crash, so they began to strap pigs, chimpanzees and, in one instance, a bear into crash test devices (some scientists with more zeal than common sense also strapped themselves into these devices). The animal/human testing led to safety steps including the introduction of a collapsible steering column after over a million drivers died when they were impaled on rigid steering wheels. The collapsible steering column cut death-by-steering wheel by 50 percent.

NHTSA

Alarmed by growing highway fatalities in the '60s, Congress instituted the National Highway Safety Bureau in 1966 to focus on highway safety. The name was changed in 1970 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency is mandated to issue federal safety standards and regulations with which automakers and suppliers must comply. The agency's first standard concerning seatbelt assemblies was issued in 1967. Such federal standards set minimum safety performance requirements with the intention of protecting the public against unreasonable risk of death or injury, during a crash, from the design, construction, or performance of a motor vehicle. They do not mandate specific safety fixes.

NHTSA, which must answer to Congress, issues recalls when defects are found through accident data and consumer complaints. The agency is also tasked with setting fuel economy standards, promoting the use of safety devices such as seatbelts, child safety seats, and more. It investigates odometer fraud, and establishes and enforces vehicle anti-theft regulations. The agency began crash testing in 1972 with a Hybrid II dummy based on an early design by GM.

IIHS

In 1969, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), supported by insurance companies, was formed to focus on reducing highway losses. IIHS developed its own research to reduce deaths, injuries, and property damage on the nation's highways. In 1992 the group opened a state-of-the-art crash test facility and began smashing new cars into offset barriers at 40 mph (5 mph faster than existing NHTSA crash tests) and later whacking them on the side, and from behind, with sleds to collect further crash test data. A second arm of the Institute is the Highway Loss Data Institute that provides information on injury, collision, and theft losses for every make and model.

NHTSA developed a five-star crash test rating for vehicles and IIHS developed a four-point rating of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor for vehicles it crash-tests. IIHS also provides a four-part bumper crash test that shows the repair costs of low-speed (5 mph) crashes into poles and offset barriers that simulate common parking lot mishaps.

Marketing

As those crash results hit the media, automakers began to use good crash-test results as selling points. As vehicle crash-test ratings moved up from a majority of poor to mediocre ratings, to good ratings, the automakers began moving toward crash avoidance technology to prevent crashes from happening at all. The Electronic Stability Control program, based on anti-lock braking systems, was the first of such technology to show substantial promise as a crash avoidance tool, reducing crashes on wet roads for passenger cars by 75 percent and for SUVs on wet roads by 88 percent. NHTSA is considering mandating this type of system on all future passenger vehicles.

Both NHTSA and IIHS have web sites that offer consumers a wealth of information. The IIHS site (www.iihs.org) is more straightforward than the NHTSA site (www.nhtsa.dot.gov), but each site offers its own wealth of information.

Recalls

NHTSA can mount a recall when a safety defect is uncovered. Complaints from consumers are investigated and, if a safety defect is found, the manufacturer is ordered to conduct a recall and repair the defect. The direct route to finding recall information on the NHTSA site is to log on to Vehicles & Equipment at the top of the site then click on Recalls/Defects on the left sidebar and plug in the year, make, and model to get recall information. The site also offers technical service bulletins (TBS) or advisories issued by manufacturers to the dealership service departments. These are not safety nor emission problems. However, if your vehicle is under warranty and the service department can confirm that your vehicle has the problem, it can be fixed for free. Only a summary of the TSBs is free on the NHTSA site. For a fee, you can get the entire TSB mailed to you.

Research Help

NHTSA also offers a wealth of information on child safety seats: Recalled models; how to correctly install a child safety seat; what seat is right for your child; as well as local child safety seat inspection sites. The site offers crash tests and rollover ratings for each vehicle the agency tests. A downloadable brochure on how to choose a safer car also offers good buying tips.

Research covering many aspects of auto safety, from distracted driving to pedestrian safety, can also be accessed, but the summary is usually all a novice can handle. If the site defeats you or you'd rather talk to a human being, NHTSA has a Vehicle Safety Hotline open between 8 am and 10 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday (1-888-327-4236).

How We Benefit

IIHS is unhampered by government regulation and mandates. It is concerned primarily with the same goals as NHTSA—reducing deaths and injuries from highway crashes. But it is also interested in reducing property loss, as indicated by its widely covered bumper tests. Media coverage of these tests keeps the pressure on automakers to design better bumpers.

The Institute also researches the highway environment to discover ways to cut down on fender benders as well as severe crashes. It has devoted a lot of research to whiplash injuries, which were often derided as fraudulent injuries in the past, but which the Institute says can become lifelong, painful injuries. The Institute championed red light and speed cameras as a way to tame our roadways and is now studying roundabouts as a way to keep traffic moving and circumvent intersection crashes.

Safety Ratings

Their web site is quite easy to navigate and offers crash test ratings for front, side and rear impacts as well as bumper tests. Click on Vehicle Ratings at the top of the web page and plug in the make or model you are researching on the side bar. The page also lists the top safety picks by IIHS in each segment and explains the methods behind those picks. There is a listing on this site as well as on the NHTSA site of all vehicles that are currently equipped with Electronic Stability Control.

Click on Consumer Brochures and Videos to access Injury, collision and theft losses for your vehicle segment. The vehicles are ranked by color codes and show how often your choice is stolen or involved in a collision. Click on Research & Statistics, then click on "show topic list" and a list pops up including airbag, bumpers, collisions with animals, etc. Click on a topic and read through the research or brochures that pop up. The Status Report Newsletter on the top of the web page also makes good background reading on a variety of subjects.