CrashTest : Prius gets 5 stars at EuroNCAP

I'm intrigued by the sentence "It achieved five stars following modification to the driver’s knee impact area."

Are they saying that Toyota agreed to make changes to the design after the test to get their 5 stars?

 

Story Link

http://www.carkeys.co.uk/features/industry...y/2004/3488.asp

The Prius's points score for overall passenger protection equals the best ever recorded in the class, and its child protection score tops the whole Euro NCAP points table.

 

Pedestrian crash ratings deal with how 'friendly' the car is if it hits a pedestrian.

The images on the page all represent car occupants not pedestrians. There doesn't seem to be one for a pedestrian.

Pedestrian Friendly cars are a relatively new concept. It's like the discussion about whether big vehicles need to have a bar at bumper height so they don't roll over smaller vehicles or so smaller vehicles don't slide up under them in a rear impact.

Now that we have occupant safety fairly well understood and engineered, they are expanding the concept of 'auto safety' to include the people and vehicles around you.

If a car is 'friendly' to pedestrians, they won't get hurt as much if you hit them.

Badly designed cars tend to break pedestrians legs and then cause head/torso trauma.

I presume the Prius doesn't do as well there because of it's aero design. It has a relatively 'sharp' point out there.

Europe is much more concerned about pedestrian safety than the US, presumably because the close quarters and narrow streets in Europe results in more cars bumping into walkers.

 

In the US cars are designed (mandated) with a "knee bolster", which I'm guessing is a padded area under the steering wheel, to help support an UNBUCKLED driver. In Europe these are not used because seat belt use has been mandated for a longer time and their usage rate is higher. They feel that these "knee bolsters" do more harm than good with a belted driver.

Peter
Miami, FL

 

My understanding is that the US tests were done without the side airbags.

Nice to see the improvements that occur when you're in a model with side airbags.

 

The EuroNCAP tests was with side airbags and curtain airbag, since they're standard in most European Prius.

 

I saw a History Channel special on cars or car safety or something about a week ago. Some of the footage from inside a test car on side impact were. . . insightful. Suffice to say, there's no way in hell I'm ever buying a car without side impact airbags.

 

I believe that NHTSA has mandated that all cars have side airbags starting in 2006

 

some interesting info from an insurance lady i deal with at work.

head on colisions are no longer that hazardous. in 2002 in 1100 headons with total speed of 75+ mph fatalities occurred only in 11% of cases when both vehicles were new. the weight ratio of the vehicles didnt change the stats one way or the other. also over 90% of fatalities were in crashes in the 120+ mph range.

however. in side collisions where the colliding car was doing at least 25 mph, fatalities occured 23% of the time making side impacts by far the most dangerous. side air bags reduced fatalities by 75%

i was amazed that that low a speed kills so often.