Higher Vehicle Standards

Posted on September 17, 2007 by Law Office of D. Hardison Wood

The NHTSA announced tougher standards for passenger vehicles in side impact crashes. The new standard requires auto manufacturers to provide head protection in side impact crashes.  This only  seems to make  common sense.  When someone is involved in a side impact crash, the person's head is extremely vulnerable to traumatic injury.  As a matter of fact, even in  a frontal  collision, there is  a great likelihood that the person's head, will fall to the  side and is vulnerable to sustaining injury  from the side as well.  At least these higher standards are a step in the right direction.  Read the new standards here.

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BMW Sedan - Side Impact Rating

Posted on August 19, 2007 by Law Office of D. Hardison Wood

By now you may have heard about the "worst performing" BMW 5 series sedan in side impact testing performed by IIHS.  It should send shockwaves, we hope, through BMW.  From the article:

The air bags in the BMW 5 Series protected the head, but separate air bags designed to protect the chest and abdomen performed poorly, the institute said.

BMW's are expensive, high-performing automobiles and there is simply no excuse for them to offer their passengers sub-standard safety in deadly side impact collisions.  The tests that the BMW failed were tests of what, at least in America, are becoming very common side-impact tragedies:

The tests were designed to show what would happen if a truck or sport utility vehicle hit the side of the sedan at 31 mph, the speed of a serious crash. Side-impact crashes are the most common type of fatal crash after a frontal crash, killing around 9,000 people in 2005, the institute said.

But there is a silver-lining to this latest round of crash 'em up.  The $25K sedan made by KIA ended up with the highest safety rating available from the IIHS.  Putting it in the same league as the vaunted VOLVO S-80.  Which of course should make you wonder, what's all that extra money doing for you in a BMW?

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