Only one model managed to obtain top scores
across the board for crash safety
By Jim Gorzelany
CTW Features
One of the underlying axioms of auto safety is that, all else being equal, a larger and heavier vehicle will inherently protect its occupants better in a crash than will a smaller and lighter one. Well it looks like we can add a big asterisk to that old saw.
That’s because the majority of big pickups in the latest round of crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), Arlington, Virginia, failed to pass muster in the so-called small overlap frontal evaluation that’s designed to replicate the effects of hitting a pole or clipping another vehicle that crosses the center lane of traffic.
Of nine models tested in both extended length and four-door crew cab models, only the extended version of the Ford F-150 (called SuperCab) garnered a top “Good” score in the small overlap frontal crash test and earned a Top Safety Pick designation for 2016. The top score represents a significant improvement for the F-150 SuperCab, thanks to engineering changes made for the 2016 model after the 2015 vintage could only muster a marginal rating in the small overlap test. The four-door F-150 SuperCrew model, tested last year, likewise aces the IIHS’ crash tests and maintains a Top Safety Pick rating.
Here, vehicles are crashed at 40 mph with only 25 percent of a car’s front end on the driver side striking a 5-foot tall rigid barrier. The IIHS says small overlap crashes tend to evaluate the crashworthiness of a car’s outer edges that tend not to be well protected structurally by so-called crush zones, and test a vehicle’s airbags and seatbelts in more rigorous ways that do frontal tests.
Crash forces in these types of collisions go directly into the front wheel, suspension system and firewall, which the IIHS contends results in serious leg and foot injuries Though these types of collisions aren’t necessarily fatal, top performance here could well mean the difference between walking away from an accident and having to be carted off to a hospital.
Among the other models tested for 2016, the mechanically equivalent Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 Double Cab models and the Toyota Tundra Double Cab versions received “Acceptable” grades in the small overlap test. Meanwhile, the four-door Crew Cab versions of the Chevy and GMC models, the four-door CrewMax version of the Tundra and both the Quad Cab and Crew Cab variants of the Ram 1500 received “Marginal” scores.
The Ram models fared the worst in the IIHS’ small overlap test, with “Poor” performance at maintaining their structural integrity. According to the IIHS, the crash forces pushed the Ram trucks’ door-hinge pillar, instrument panel, and steering column back toward the driver, with the dummy’s head rolling off the airbag and approaching the intruding window pillar. All other models but the Ford F-150 suffered moderate to severe intrusion into the driver’s foot well area, which makes serious lower leg, ankle, and foot injuries likely.
While all the pickups tested earned “Good” marks in the IIHS’ moderate overlap frontal and side-impact crash tests and for head restraint performance, only the F-150s, both Silverados and the Tundra Double Cab earned “Good” scores for roof crush protection in a rollover incident. The Tundra CrewMax was rated as “Acceptable” and both Ram 1500 trucks received “Marginal” marks. The IIHS says that 44 percent of fatalities in pickup trucks are due to single-vehicle rollover crashes.
The F-150 and the Chevy/GMC models offer a forward collision warning system for added safety, though they don’t come with auto-braking capabilities, and thus only earn a “Basic” score for accident avoidance. We expect to see this market segment offering autonomous braking systems across the board, especially in higher-end models, within the next year or two.
Full information on crash tests and forward collision prevention system performance for most makes and models can be found on the Institute’s website, www.iihs.org.
© CTW Features
