The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has almost become the gold standard for vehicle crash ratings, but many argue the IIHS’ tests have become too easy, allowing a great number of vehicles tested to earn top safety picks. However, future top picks won’t be so easy to come by as the IIHS has announced a new roof strength standard.
Vehicle roof strength standards have been a hot topic of debate since 2005, but not much in the way of action has been done on the subject. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been mulling a new standard that would require a vehicle roof to withstand 2.5 times the vehicle weight for several years now, but the Bush administration failed to sign the proposal into law. The current standard – which has been on the books since 1973 – requires a vehicle roof to only withstand 1.5 times the vehicle weight.
But the IIHS is taking the NHTSA’s proposal even further. To earn the organization’s coveted top safety pick, a vehicle roof will have to withstand 4 times the vehicle weight.
“We see significant safety benefits in stronger vehicle roofs,” Adrian Lund, president of IIHS, told The Detroit News. “The government is moving slowly and they are going to continue to move slowly.”
Although most automakers support the increase in strength from 1.5 to 2.5, virtually all oppose to the increase to 4.0. Increased roof strength means increased cost and weight, which translate into lower fuel economy ratings and profits for the automakers.
However, the human case for stronger vehicle roofs seems to far outweigh the business case. Rollover crashes account for only 3 percent of all traffic accidents, but makeup about 33 percent of all crash fatalities. By raising the national standard to 4.0, thousands of lives could be saved each year.
