Filed under: SMART, Fiat, Renault, Lightweight, UK
Small cars perform poorly in U.K. whiplash testing
Small cars aren't necessarily unsafe, as good engineering and quality materials can go a long way towards making up for the size disadvantage that they face in many accidents. Sometimes, though, corners can be cut in order to save a few bucks, and the U.K. agency Thatcham suggests that the seats in small city cars could use some help. "City cars are not equipped to protect their occupants' necks when they have to absorb the crash energy from larger, heavier vehicles which combined with poor seat design makes whiplash far more likely. Good seat design is not something that should be inherently linked to higher value cars and this latest set of results will hopefully act as a catalyst for vehicle manufacturers to look at improving seat and head restraints design within this important and growing sector," says Matthew Avery, a research manager at Thatcham.
Because city cars spend much of their time in traffic, which is where whiplash is most likely, these latest tests indicate that much more work is required from manufacturers. Not a single mini-car tested performed well enough to earn a "good" whiplash protection rating, while the smart fortwo and Renault Twingo were the only mini's rated as "acceptable."
[Source: Thatcham]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 9:09PM (4/29/2008)
I don't think a car's size has anything to do with whiplash protection.
I've seen bad whiplash ratings from all sorts of vehicles.
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/head_restraints/headrestraints.aspx?chevrolet
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/head_restraints/headrestraints.aspx?honda
This explains the way the iihs tests whiplash protection:
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/head_restraints/head_restraint_info.html
From what I remember (I read this a couple months ago or something) it doesn't make it sounds that smaller vehicles have anything to do with whiplash protection. It seems to suggest that seat design is the ultimate factor.
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Mark 9:42PM (4/29/2008)
"Small cars perform poorly in whiplash testing" IE..Another way that Exxon Mobil and Shell will try to make everyone go "Oh no, small cars are unsafe, lets go by gas guzzling civilian tanks (SUV'S) and spend half of our paycheck for the mental illusion that we'd be safe."
The chair design is ultimately the factor which determines the impact of whiplash.
All this is, is fear mongering by Big Oil, and Oil companies so people will keep buying inefficient SUV's and laugh all the way to the bank.
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jake 1:09AM (4/30/2008)
@Joseph
I agree whiplash protection is definitely NOT related to a car's size but VERY related to the seat design. I know this because I did some research on whiplash when I was researching a car that didn't have rear head restraints. But I suppose it is still an issue, since according to them, city cars have higher risk since they are in traffic more, but hopefully this doesn't mislead people into thinking this is a problem isolated or inherently in small cars.
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andrichrose 2:51AM (4/30/2008)
Obviously the logical thing to do is to reduce the number
of larger vehicles ,and, or to restrict their speed with electronic
governors .
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Grant 3:29AM (4/30/2008)
that's why I drive a volvo :) They worked it out 10 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHIPS
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 4:14AM (4/30/2008)
Whiplash IS related to car size. However this is not a good reason for endorsing tractors.
http://www.vv.se/filer/23860/euroncap_whiplash_pl.pdf
Whiplash IS related to car size just as driver safety and pedestrian safety also relate to car size. The solution to all three problems is the same - banning tractors. In terms of whiplash and driver safety tractors have advantages in theory (there are also plenty of small cars which outperform poorly engineered tractors in terms of driver safety, so car size is only part of the equation).
If you want to improve driver safety and whiplash problems (far less frequent than the kind of accidents the euroncap tests are currently designed for) one thing you could do is have everyone driving in tractors (and ever bigger ones at that). However if you factor in health, environmental, economic and fuel issues into the equation - it's probably better if we stop using tractors for personal use instead.
Euroncap plan to include whiplash soon into their tests.
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rj 12:01PM (4/30/2008)
Yes, car size and whiplash are related.
If two vehicles have the same quality of seats head restraint etc, assuming the same amount of energy is dissipated in the collision the vehicle with the least mass will be accelerated more quickly leading to larger forces acting on the passengers.
Physics is cruel and unforgiving but generally predictable.
Now the 1st two asumptions in the thought experiment are likely to never be true, smaller cars tend to be cheaper and come with cheaper seats. A smaller car has less room for energy absorbing structures so in all likely hood even more energy will be available to accelerate the small car.
In the us cars have bumper height laws, trucks do not, a truck with 3 in of ground clearance would be worthless.
I got rear ended by a VW passat much heavier than my cherokee by almost half a ton. The VW hit my trailer hitch so very little energy was dissipated in the collision, even though I had my headrest adjusted properly it was still a painful experience.
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Calguy 12:06PM (4/30/2008)
Saab introduced whiplash protecting seat headrests a long time ago. Part of why I drive a Saab 9-5 (and a new smart also).
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s10 12:51PM (4/30/2008)
Who did the testing? Mosley?
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