The Chicago Tribune recently
reported than many luxury automobiles such as BMW, Mercedes and Lexus have
received poor grades on recent crash tests. According to the Insurance
Institute on Highway Safety, only 3 of 11 luxury
cars from the 2012 model year passed the new car crash test, which looked at
front-corner impacts, which are not well protected by vehicles’ crush-zone
structures.
In the insurance
group’s test, 25% of a car’s front end on the driver’s side is rammed into a
5-foot-high rigid barrier at 40 mph. The insurance institute plans to
incorporate the same kind of car crash in tests of other vehicles.
“Nearly every new car performs well in
other frontal crash tests conducted by the institute and the federal
government, but we still see more than 10,000 deaths in frontal crashes each
year,” said Adrian Lund, the institute’s president. “Small overlap
crashes,” which include the type of car accident examined by the new test,
“are a major source of these fatalities.”
The Acura TL and
Volvo S60 earned “good” ratings, while the Infiniti G was rated
“acceptable.” The Acura TSX, BMW 3 Series, Lincoln MKZ and Volkswagen
CC all received “marginal” ratings. The Audi A4, Lexus ES 350, Lexus
IS 250/350 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class were rated “poor.”
Why are these higher end vehicles
performing so poorly? I would assume the
automakers are designing these vehicles for optimum performance and speed,
which could mean they are cutting corners on safety. This has been a perpetual
problem with automakers over the last 60 plus years – – beginning the slow but gradual implementation of seat-belts. It will be interesting to see if the government
intervenes if we see a drastic increase in traffic deaths that can be blamed on
these lack of safety design features.
If you or someone you love has been
seriously injured in a Chicago car accident or Chicago truck accident, then
call Chicago personal injury attorney Aaron Bryant for a free consultation at
3122-588-3384 or go to the firm website at