Auto Safety Lab : Safety of Japanese cars

Posts Tagged ‘car safety’

Wearing a seat belt is extremely important. All vehicles come readily equipped with a seat belt for your safety. They are there to protect you, especially if you were to get into an accident. Wearing your seat belt is a law for a reason. If you would not put your newborn child in a vehicle without a safe car seat, then you should not ride in a vehicle without your seat belt on.

Wearing a seat belt can literally save your life. If you were to get into a wreck, God forbid, having a seat belt on can protect you. Wearing a seat belt at the time of an accident can decrease your chances of having a fatal injury by 50 percent. With that being said, you should definitely wear your seat belt at all times. You never know when an accident can occur as it doesn’t just depend on your driving skills, but the skills of the other drivers around you as well. Having friends and family who care about your well-being should be enough reason for you to wear your seat belt to decrease your chances of getting a fatal injury if you were to get into a wreck.

Not only can wearing a seat belt save your life, but they are also there to protect your body. The three-point restraints found in the front seats of vehicles protect your internal organs. Not only that, but they also control your forward motion. They help to keep you from going out the windshield in the event of a crash. Seat belts also keep your pelvis from rotating as your pelvis rotating can lead to a serious back injury.

Wearing your seat belt can also save you money. Hospital bills can be costly. People involved in car crashes who were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash spend 50 percent more than those who wore their seat belts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has stated that wearing seat belts has save $585 billion in medical care and related costs since the year 1975.

Seat belts are meant to be worn. It is a state law in all 50 states with the exception of New Hampshire as of the year 2008. They can save your life, protect you, and save you money. Wearing your seat belt can also influence your children to always wear their seat belt. There is no reason to not wear your seat belt.

In Japan, they take great pride in knowing the safety of the vehicles being sold. The National Organization for Automobiles Safety & Victims’ Aid, more commonly referred to as OSA, examines the safety performance of vehicles currently available in Japan. They choose a selection of Japan’s best-selling cars starting with models from the year 1996.

In 2001 OSA changed their rating system to a complicated six-star system. With this new system they now test the full frontal, frontal offset, and side impact. They then combine the results of all three tests to come up with the overall rating. The overall rating ranges from one to six stars, with six stars being the best rating possible to attain. They also evaluate each test separately. This is to ensure that any shortcomings of the vehicle are presented in great detail. With this new system, the newer ratings have proven to be much more accurate than the old system.

In the full frontal collision test, a moving vehicle with dummies in both the driver’s seat and passenger seat drives with great force into a concrete barrier at a speed of 55 MPH. This is to assess the impact on the head and test as well as see the consequential condition of the vehicle. This is done to denote a head-on collision involving two vehicles of similar weight traveling at a speed of 55 MPH. The full-width frontal impact aids in the evaluations of seat belts and airbags.

In 2001 OSA started testing vehicles by adopting the Euro NCAP frontal offset impact test. In addition, they also perform the full-width frontal and side impact test. These are both done to better ease safety concerns of drivers.

For the Offset Frontal Impact test, two dummies are placed in the driver and passenger seats. The passenger seat then hits a damageable barrier at a speed of 40 MPH. This helps to evaluate the impact on the head, chest, legs, and any damages to the vehicle. The representation of this test is comparable to a head-on collision between two vehicles of the same weight-class traveling at a speed of 40 MPH. However, since only a portion of the vehicle’s body endures the collision, there is less of an impact on the dummy than in a full-frontal collision.

Later on in the year 1999, OSA began testing vehicles using the side impact test adopted from the Euro-NCAP and NHTSA side impact tests. With this test, a motionless vehicle with dummies in the driver’s and passenger’s seat is hit by a 2,090 lb trolley traveling at a speed of 31 MPH. The impact is centered on the driver’s seating position.

All of the above-named tests that are performed on vehicles in Japan only apply in comparison to accidents where all parties involved are wearing their seatbelts. Also, the results of each test can only be compared with occurrences between two vehicles within the same weight-class. Also, keep in mind if the speed of one or both vehicles is much greater than the speed from the tests then the consequences of the impact from that occurrence is not comparable to the tests performed.

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