Motor vehicles are now  designed with safety in mind and that change has resulted in lives being saved.

 

02 – Vehicle Safety: Buying a Safer Car with Joseph Nolan, IIHS

Joseph Nolan, Vice President for Vehicle Research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), speaks with me about what you can do to buy a safer car.  While the IIHS is involved in a wide range of highway safety activities, one of their best known is their ratings developed from car crash testing.  Five types of crashes are done by the IIHS, with each scored separately:

• Moderate overlap front
• Small overlap front (less of the car is impacted than in the moderate overlap)
• Side
• Roof strength, and
• Head restraints.

Once a car is put through each crash test, it receives an overall rating: Poor, Marginal, Acceptable or Good.  A vehicle that receives a “Good” rating in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength, and head restraint tests is deemed a Top Safety Pick by the IIHS.  If the car rates a “Good” in 4 out of 5 tests and “Acceptable” in the 5^th, then it gets a Top Safety Pick + (Plus). Read More and Listen to the Episode >>>