"For three decades, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has been smashing vehicles with an adult-sized dummy sitting in the front seat, simulating a type of head-on collision where two vehicles are slightly offset. It's always been a challenging test, above and beyond the minimum standards that car companies are legally required to meet. The IIHS conducts tests and independently awards safety ratings that are meant to reward companies for superior safety, well exceeding minimum standards."
"After a few decades of these improvements, real-world injury data showed that fatalities had, counterintuitively, become more common in the back seat. And not just a little more common; the risk was 46% higher. "What we saw when we went back and looked at the field data is that while we've made lots of improvements for the front seat, the rear seat hadn't kept pace,""
For three decades the IIHS ran a frontal offset crash test with an adult-sized dummy in the front seat to assess occupant protection beyond legal minimums. Automakers improved crumple zones, seat belts, and other front-seat protections, making head-on collisions more survivable for front occupants. Real-world injury data later showed fatalities became 46% more common in the back seat, indicating rear-seat protection lagged. IIHS still recommends younger children ride in the back due to airbag risks, but teenagers and many adult back-seat passengers now face higher risk. IIHS added a small rear-seat dummy in 2022 and tightened the test in 2024.
Read at www.npr.org
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