Full-size SUVs appear to be extra large than they’ve ever been, and it’s not only a single automaker that’s responsible of it — they principally all are. From Jeep’s Wagoneer fashions to Toyota’s Sequoia and GM’s full-size SUVs, in case you get into an accident with considered one of these items, you’re cooked. What’s outstanding about these SUVs is that the hazards of them have been recognized for years, as this 22-year-old crash take a look at exhibits.
Now, large SUVs aren’t simply harmful in crashes as a result of they’re large total. There’s precise information to assist that bigger hood, grille and entrance fascia areas make automobiles extra harmful. In the early 2000’s, nonetheless, this was nonetheless being studied and put to the take a look at.
In a video from YouTube’s CarPro1993 Crash Test Archives, the Transportation Research Center in Ohio carried out a crash take a look at in 2002 utilizing a 1999 Lincoln Navigator and a 1996 Dodge Neon sedan in a 30-mph frontal crash. The description of the take a look at says that its objective was to judge “the aggressiveness of the bullet vehicle, a 1999 Lincoln Navigator SUV, and the vehicle and occupant response of the target vehicle, a 1996 Dodge Neon 4-door sedan, in this vehicle-to-vehicle impact mode.” The outcomes are surprising.
Just wanting purely at specs you’ll see the Neon was at an obstacle. This first technology of Navigator is a full 22.4 inches taller than the Neon sedan, and the entrance of the Navigator traces up instantly with the entrance windshield of the Neon. Both automobiles had been run at 30 mph, however the best way the Neon is broken makes it appear as if each had been going a lot quicker.
As you possibly can see within the slow-motion portion of the video, the Neon rattling close to acts as form of a ramp for the Navigator. The large Lincoln’s entrance wheels plow thus far into the Neon that each automobiles’ wheels contact. Meanwhile, the Neon bends upward on the rear of the entrance fender the place it meets the A-pillar. It’s a surprising quantity of harm contemplating its comparatively low-speed influence.
Meanwhile, the Navigator and its occupants held up a lot better. Most of the harm on the Navigator seems to be to be concentrated below the car, and given the place the occupants had been sitting as a result of SUV’s top, that they had extra safety.
The occupants of the Neon weren’t so fortunate. The video particulars how the occupant dummies within the Neon skilled some forces that exceeded the boundaries set by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, particularly with regard to G forces. For occasion, there have been 65 g’s of chest pressure skilled within the Neon; federal security requirements say that ought to not surpass 60 g’s.
Even although that is an previous take a look at, it ought to be a wake-up name to each drivers of small automobiles and drivers of enormous automobiles and SUVs to drive safely, particularly in case you’re in an older car with worse security options and buildings. One might solely think about how a crash like this may play out in as we speak’s even larger automobiles.
Source: jalopnik.com