GM fares well in IIHS small-overlap crash test
May 28, 2015On behalf of Terence Gross of Gross & Schuster, P.A. posted in Car Accidents on Friday, April 18, 2014.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, as many of our readers know, is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving motor vehicle safety. The IIHS is well known for the crash tests it performs on vehicles. The results of these tests are taken seriously by both consumer advocates and manufacturers. That’s why General Motors is pretty happy that two of its sport utility vehicles earned high ratings in a recent crash test.
The test, which looked at nine midsize SUV models, measured how well these vehicles performed in “small overlap” accidents, which involve crashes impacting the front corner of a vehicle. Roughly 25 percent of serious frontal accidents involve small overlap impacts, so it is an important safety area for manufacturers to address.
The GM SUVs that earned top ratings in the crash test were the Chevrolet Equinox and the GMC Terrain. Those two SUVs were, in fact, the only two to earn top ratings from the IIHS. As some have pointed out, the positive test results come at a time when GM’s public image is languishing due to legal issues surrounding a cover-up of faulty ignition switches in certain models.
Sport utility vehicles, as many of our readers know, have not always had the best reputation for safety. SUVs have been widely implicated in rollover accidents due to a high center of gravity and backover accidents due to reduced visibility. Nowadays, of course, many initial design flaws have been fixed, making SUVs much safer. Still, when these accidents occur they can be costly to drivers, passengers and other drivers.
Those who have been harmed in a SUV accident should contact an experienced personal injury attorney to determine their options for recovery.
Source: CNN Monday, “Two GM SUVs top new safety ranking,” Katie Lobosco, April 8, 2014.
