The Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has released the results of its
rear impact crash testing, and the new Toyota
Tundra has come out on
top amongst all pickups - scoring the only 'Good' rating from the IIHS.
The IIHS
testing simulates a rear-end collision by ramming a stationary vehicle
from behind with a steel sled, of equal weight to the test vehicle,
at 20-mph.
Specially
instrumented dummies in the cabin of the struck vehicle are measured
to determine how well the automobile's seats managed the head and neck
motion of the dummies relative to their torso and body movement. A
significant differential between the two is the cause of whiplash injuries.
According
to the IIHS, "The key to reducing whiplash injury risk is to keep the
head and torso moving together. To
accomplish this, the geometry of a head restraint has to be adequate — high
enough to be
near the back of the head. Then the seat structure and stiffness characteristics
must be
designed to work in concert with the head restraint to support an occupant’s
neck and head,
accelerating them with the torso as the vehicle is pushed forward."
The Tundra also
received an IIHS 'Good' rating
earlier this year in frontal offset crash testing, though in federal
government crash testing it only achieved
four out of five stars for
driver and passenger safety.
Scores for
all the trucks tested by the IIHS are below:
The IIHS
did not test the Ford Ranger or Mazda B-Series compact pickups because
the geometry of their head restraints is marginal or poor. This means
they can’t be positioned to protect many taller people.
