Monday, March 5- Local/State/National Affairs

Monday, March 5

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety discovered that nowadays, most midsized cars' bumpers do not prevent costly damage to the vehicles, even at a low speed of 6mph. Only three midsize vehicles (Mitsubishi Galant, Toyota Camry, and Mazda 6) showed use for their bumpers, allowing just $1500 worth of damage in repairs in each of the four crash tests.
However, the Institute claims that $1500 worth of damage at 6mph is still a very high number.
These crash tests were performed on 17 midsized cars in very low speeds. They were conducted on front, rear, front corner, and rear corner.
The Institute conducted tests at the same speed in the same places on a 1981 Ford Escort, and the results showed only $86 in damages to the front end. This, they say, is because of "federal requirements that were in effect until 1982 that required bumpers to keep damage away from vehicle safety equipment and sheet metal parts in crashes of up to 5mph."

The article states that since 1982, the requirement for the test speed has been cut in half, providing automakers the chance to reduce the cost it takes to make the cars, resulting in more damage.

I don't think this is right at all, and although I am not surprised, it just does not seem fair. The automakers are lying to their customers, and safety is at hand in this situation. Many more studies could lead from this one, and perhaps more people have died in recent car crashes than in the 1980s because these cars are made more cheaply and damage is done much worse at lower speeds. Depending on how far these studies go, automakers may lose money and they have a lot of explaining to do.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/business/ci_5353827