New Study By IIHS Shows Importance Of Good Side-Impact Protection

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Drivers of vehicles that perform well in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's side-impact crash test are much less likely to die in a real-world left-side crash than drivers of vehicles that do poorly, a new analysis finds. The study includes only passenger vehicles with side airbags, demonstrating that airbags, while crucial, are far from the whole story in side crash protection.

After controlling for driver age and gender and vehicle type and weight, a driver of a vehicle rated good for driver protection in a side impact is 70 percent less likely to die in a left-side crash compared with a driver of a vehicle rated poor. A driver of a vehicle rated acceptable is 64 percent less likely to die, and a driver of a vehicle rated marginal is 49 percent less likely to die.

These probabilities were calculated using ratings that reflect driver protection only and differ from the Institute's published ratings, which reflect protection for both the driver and a passenger in back. The study looked mainly at driver death risk because federal crash statistics don't contain the information needed to calculate passenger risk the same way. The researchers computed driver-only ratings for vehicles in the study using the same method the Institute normally uses to rate models that don't have back seats.

"This was our first look at how our ratings correlate with actual crash data since we started side tests in 2003, and the numbers confirm that these are meaningful ratings," says Institute Chief Research Officer David Zuby. "Vehicles with good side ratings provide occupants with far more protection than vehicles that do poorly in our test."