SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new vehicle crash test report was released Tuesday, highlighting the lack of protection those sitting in back seats have.
The report was published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a non-profit organization funded by auto insurance groups, and found a lack in additional protection to back seat passengers.
“The front seat has gotten a lot safer in recent years. Front seat occupants are now benefiting from technology such as airbags and advanced seatbelt systems,” said president David Harkey. “The same level of technology often does not exist in the rear seat to protect those occupants.”
Nine out of the 15 vehicles in the testing received a poor rating, increasing the potential of injuries back seat passengers could get in accidents.
“We are looking at that rear passenger dummy specifically to see if there's a likelihood that the restraint system did not protect them when it comes to moving forward and possibly striking hard surfaces such as the front seat pack,” said Harkey.
While testing the Mazda CX-5 and the Honda HR-V, the institute found the lap belt on the rear passenger dummies slipped upward from the hips to the stomach, possibly increasing stomach injuries.
Harkey says when it comes to evaluating vehicles, they are “looking at how well the occupant compartment holds up structurally” and the “likelihood of injury to both dummies that we include in the test.”
Cars are larger and faster than they were 20 years ago and testing has been updated to reflect those changes.
Harkey says the vehicles tested in this report are still “very safe” but those shopping for new cars should take their findings into consideration if they expect to have back seat passengers.
“I think it's worth looking specifically at the vehicles that did well in this test, or perhaps waiting a little bit to see if automakers respond and put these kinds of advanced belt systems in new vehicles that they're rolling out in the near future,” said Harkey.
The best performers in this round of testing were the Volvo XC40 and the Ford Escape.
The institute says it expects auto makers to respond to these tests and have new vehicles with more advanced belt systems in place by the 2024 model year.
Get a deeper dive into the report and testing HERE.
