Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Encyclopedia : I : IN : INS : Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is a U.S. non-profit organization funded by auto insurers. It works to reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes, and the rate of injuries and amount of property damage in the crashes that still occur. It carries out basic research and produces ratings for each model of vehicle.
Note from a former employee: "Auto insurer's are required to provide the Institute a certain percentage of their profits to become a member, so the more an insurance company profits - the more money IIHS gets from them. Therefore, do not assume IIHS and HLDI studies are neutral. Their studies are going to benefit the insurance industry to not only help generate insurance profits, but allow insurance companies to justify charging consumers higher rates. Proof of this information is simple: request from them the astronomical payment schedules and amounts each insurance company "member" pays to this non-profit organization. Also note, the CEO, Brian O'Neill treats his employees with utter disrespect and verbal abuse. This is the truth and can be proven as I was a witness and can contact anyone necessary to backup my claims. As one of these employees in the early 1990's, I was paid $2500 to resign after him and I had it out over a particular presentation where he gave me inaccurate rough drafts. That company also made it's employees work closely with an AIDS infected individual without proper education and supervision based on what we knew about AIDS today. "
The Institute's crash testing differs from that of the NHTSA New Car Assessment Program (governmental) in that its tests are offset from the center. This test exposes 40% of the front of the vehicle to an impact with a deformable barrier at approximately 40 MPH. Because only 40% of the vehicle's front must stand the impact, it shows the structural strength much better than the US government's NHTSA New Car Assessment Program full-width testing does. Many real-life frontal impacts are offset.
The IIHS uses four ratings for each category, Good (best, green G), Acceptable (yellow A), Marginal (orange M) and Poor (worst, red P). Vehicles which score Good in all the various rating categories, or which have only one Acceptable category, are given Best Pick designations.
As with NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program testings, vehicles across different categories may not be directly compared, as increased weight is beneficial in a two-vehicle crash.
Relatively new to the IIHS is the side impact test. Unlike NHTSA New Car Assessment Program test's low barrier, the IIHS uses an elevated barrier to simulate the impact of an SUV (approximately half of all new cars sold) into the side of the vehicle being tested. This is a "very demanding" test of both the structural integrity of the vehicle, as well as the restraints. While most new vehicles achieve 4 and 5 stars from the NHTSA (where head injuries are not part of the rating), many do not score well in the IIHS side impact test. Side impact airbags greatly help vehicles score higher in the test. The IIHS side impact test more accurately reflects a real side impact involving an SUV as the vehicle that impacts into the side of another.
The IIHS also evaluates vehicles' bumpers in a series of 5-mph impacts, as well as seat and head restraint designs in relation to rear-impact protection, using the same Poor-Good rating system.
When purchasing a new vehicle, it is necessary to pay attention to both the IIHS and NHTSA test. For example, a Chevrolet Venture (also marketed as Oldsmobile Silhouette, Pontiac Montana/TransSport) achieves a respectable rating of 4/5 stars from NHTSA, but is rated Poor by the IIHS for its poor structural integrity which becomes apparent in the offset crash test.
The difference of results between the same model tested by the NHTSA and IIHS are great and must be considered when deciding the safety of a vehicle.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.