Safety issues

[marty]

My wife , who is currently in the market for a new car, and who has driven nothing but Volvos and BMWs, has suddenly announced that she has decided that she wants a Prius. This has come as a surprise, as she had previously been looking at new Volvos and Mercedes wagons. We have a number of Prius’s in our neighborhood and my wife says that she likes the “statement they make”. I like the statement they make as well. However, my concern is the safety aspect of such a light and small vehicle.
I know that the Prius has done well in the crash tests, but I was wondering if anybody here has had or known of anyone who has actually been in a fairly serious accident with their Prius and walked away or at least lived to talk about it. Has anybody been rear ended? If so how much of the potential whiplash problem was mitigated by Toyota’s whiplash injury lessening (WIL) system? I know that you can't really fairly compare when there is such a large weight disparity, but I just wanted to know if someone has actually had a real life experience with a Pries in an accident.

I would really appreciate any input.

Thanks in advance
marty

[seasalsa]

Here is a photo from last Summer 4 passengers walked away from this. The side air bags work well.

[daronspicher]

How much does the volvo and bmw weigh?

I was a little surprised to find the Prius packing in at about 3000 pounds. My F250 comes on the scale about 7800 pounds... I'd think the Volvo would come in closer to the 3000 than the 7800... How heavy are those?

I ordered one with the stability control.. for what that's worth... Definately not a bmw...

[oly_57mpg]

Originally posted by seasalsa@Nov 16 2005, 10:10 PM
Here is a photo from last Summer 4 passengers walked away from this. The side air bags work well.

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Just for reference, a fifth wheel "camping" trailer hit the Prius...

[hdrygas]

Originally posted by oly_57mpg@Nov 16 2005, 06:24 PM
Just for reference, a fifth wheel "camping" trailer hit the Prius...

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yes it was ugly. There was another crash where 4 preteens driving drunk with out a license were hit by a 18 wheeler towing an oversize piece of earthmoviing equipment. The 18 wheeler T boned the Prius with side air bags. The three passengers out of five lived. They were wearing seat belts. It was in Texas about a year and a half ago try goggling it. This is a safe car. Check out the European crash tests with the side air bags.

[KTPhil]

8 airbags, TC, VSC... I feel very safe.

[TonyPSchaefer]

My wife is a safety freak. Since this is online, I might need to visually emphasize that: SAFETY FREAK!!

After reading the safety results from the U.S. and Europe, she stood 100% behind the Prius and is darned glad I bought it.

[ceric]

Safety-wise, if the safety cage holds under severe crash, airbags make most differences. I can't overemphasize the importance of side/curtain airbags for T-bone crash. However, if the safety cage collapses, no amount of airbags will save you. Airbags may do more harm than good in that situation.

As small as a Prius is, its safety cage has been rienforced by use of super high-strength steel.
http://www.worldautosteel.org/article2_042004.html
In a crash that involves two parties, the lighter one will suffer more impact. A Prius, at 2900lb is on the lighter side.

Volve and BMW also make vehicles with strong safety cages. No double about that. I bought my 540iA back in 1998 exactly for that reason (I could have had chosen a Lexus GS400 to avoid so many reliability problems I had with a BMW). It had the highest crash rating at that time. In many severe crashes, Volve and BMW owners could walk away from them. I have been brainwashed by the BMW magzine, in which owners reported their crash experiences.

[tripp]

Guys,

Thanks for the links and pics. Very cool. I had no idea the car did that well. And to think I made a post doubting the semi thing (someone made a vague reference to it). Guess I'll have to retract that one. I tried googling that accident but didn't come up with anything that looked right. Anyone have a link to the story?

[mcmurray]

Originally posted by marty@Nov 17 2005, 11:53 AM
My wife , who is currently in the market for a new car, and who has driven nothing but Volvos and BMWs, has suddenly announced that she has decided that she wants a Prius.  This has come as a surprise, as she had previously been looking at new Volvos and Mercedes wagons.  We have a number of Prius’s in our neighborhood and my wife says that she likes the “statement they make”.  I like the statement they make as well.  However, my concern is the safety aspect of such a light and small vehicle.
I know that the Prius has done well in the crash tests, but I was wondering if anybody here has had or known of anyone who has actually been in a fairly serious accident with their Prius and walked away or at least lived to talk about it.  Has anybody been rear ended?  If so how much of the potential whiplash problem was mitigated by Toyota’s whiplash injury lessening (WIL) system?  I know that you can't really fairly compare when there is such a large weight disparity, but I just wanted to know if someone has actually had a real life experience with a Pries in an accident.

I would really appreciate any input.

Thanks in advance
marty

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Hi Marty,

you (and everyone at PriusChat) needs to see this info from Europe. It includes movies of crash tests and so much more. You may need to install some plugins for some videos.

Prius Multimedia from Europe!

Enjoy!