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Safety Institute Revises Front Crash Test Procedure

Washington DC March 31, 2006; The AIADA newsletter reported that frontal offset crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is undergoing a major change.

The Institute is initiating a new approach involving evaluations based on manufacturers' own frontal tests of vehicles meeting requirements established by the Institute. The manufacturers are providing detailed information from their offset tests, including video, and the Institute is assessing this information, assigning ratings, and conducting audit tests to verify manufacturers' results.

Only redesigned vehicles with immediate predecessors that earned the top rating of good in previous Institute tests are eligible for verification. Substantially redesigned vehicles with significant changes in size, weight, or body style are not eligible. "The verification approach assures that automakers still pay attention to offset crash protection as they redesign their older models and introduce new ones," commented Institute President Adrian Lund.

"This approach is possible because of the manufacturers' actions during the past decade. They have incorporated offset crash test performance plus government-required and other consumer information crash testing into their guidelines."