NHTSA Releases New Crash Test and Rollover Ratings
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released new crash test and/or rollover ratings for 42 model year 2006 vehicles – 16 passenger cars, 17 sport utility vehicles, four vans, and five pickups – and two early-release model year 2007 sport utility vehicles. NHTSA’s safercar.gov consumer information program uses a on-e to five-star rating system, with five being the highest rating in both crash and rollover testing. Front and side star ratings indicate the chance of a serious injury to the occupant. Rollover star ratings represent the likelihood of rollover if a vehicle is involved in a single-vehicle crash.
Starting with 2004 model year vehicles, NHTSA’s rollover resistance ratings are based in part on a revised risk model recommended in TRB Special Report 265: An Assessment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Rating System for Rollover Resistance. The TRB report, issued in 2002, found that the static stability factor is a useful indicator of a vehicle's propensity to roll over, but that U.S. government ratings for new cars, light trucks, and sport utility vehicles did not adequately reflect differences in rollover resistance shown by available crash data. Also as a result of TRB Special Report 265, NHTSA performed recommended research on ways of providing consumers with more detailed information on vehicle ratings.
This Summary Last Modified On: 4/22/2011