By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Even small speed increases can have huge impacts on crash outcomes and cancel the effectiveness of vehicle safety features, according to new crash tests by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Humanetics. The organizations partnered to study the damage from crashes at three different impact speeds (40, 50 and 56 mph). The results showed slightly higher speeds were enough to increase the driver's risk of severe injury or death.
"Drivers want to save time and local transportation agencies want to improve traffic flow," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas. "Increasing speed limits to address those concerns can come at a deadly cost. When speed limits are correctly set and enforced, they improve traffic flow and maximize all road users safety."
Three 2010 Honda CR-V EX crossovers were used because they represented the average age (11.8 years) of a typical vehicle on U.S. roadways and earned the top rating in the IIHS moderate overlap front test.
"We did some testing with crash dummies," Steward said. "At a 50 mph speed, there was a noticeable deformation of the driver side door openingin a crash. The dashboard and foot area were also damaged. At 56 mph, the vehicle interior was significantly compromised, with the crash dummy's sensors registering severe neck injuries and a likelihood of fractures."
At both 50 and 56 mph, the steering wheel's upward movement caused the crash dummy's head to go through the deployed airbag.
"Just a small increase in speed can translate to a lot more serious injuries in the event of a crash," Steward said.
IIHS has been conducting this type of test, which simulates a head-on, partial-overlap impact between two vehicles of the same weight and size traveling at the same speed, since 1995. The research tests were conducted following the same protocol that is used for the IIHS moderate overlap evaluation; only the speed was varied. With a test dummy representing an average-sized male in the driver's seat, the cars were crashed with 40 percent of the vehicle's front on the driver side overlapping the barrier.