Side Crash Protection To Be Standard In Cars

Our lawyers frequently review cases in which cars sustain side impacts which result in serious injury and death. Beginning in the 2013 model-year all new passenger vehicles will be required to provide head protection for side crashes. New regulations, announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are designed to reduce deaths and injuries of motorists who are struck by another car or truck along the vehicle’s side
The safety upgrades, which have been under review since 2004, could save more than 300 lives and prevent more than 400 serious injuries annually through the installation of side air bags that protect the torso and side curtain air bags that guard the head. Side-impact crashes killed 9,200 people in 2005, the most recent figures available, or about 29 percent of motorists killed in passenger vehicle crashes. A study reported last year by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that driver deaths were reduced by 52 percent in sport utility vehicles equipped with head-protecting side air bags, while the same air bags reduced driver deaths by 37 percent in passenger cars.
The auto industry has voluntarily agreed to install side air bags in all new passenger vehicles by September 2009 and the safety equipment, including air bags that provide more protection in rollover accidents, is becoming more widely available. Under the government’s plan, automakers will be required to phase-in the head protection in 20 percent of passenger vehicles in the 2010 model year, 50 percent by the 2011 model year, 75 percent in 2012 vehicles and in all passenger vehicles for 2013 models. All new passenger vehicles will need to comply by September 2012.
The new rules do not require specific types of technologies to meet the new standards, but automakers will likely use side curtain air bags and air bags that protect the chest and abdomen. About 47 percent of 2008 model year vehicles already have the combination of side curtain air bags and side air bags that protect the torso according to government data.
Automakers will be required to test vehicles with a test that simulates a vehicle striking a tree or a pole in the driver’s side. They will also have to conduct crash tests using dummies the size of a small woman and a more technologically advanced male dummy of average height.