Front-End Crash Deaths: Why the Modern Safety Features May Not Save Us

We have previously discussed the wonders of modern automotive safety features (see http://www.maryland-law.com/blog/motor-vehicle-crash-safety-air-bags.cfm

Yet we are perplexed by the prevalence of auto crash fatalities involving frontal collisions in modern air bag and crumple- zone equipped vehicles. This perplexity is evidently shared by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration as they have published an extensive study on the subject. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811102.PDF
The findings should encourage seat belt and air bag use, as it is estimated that the risk of death in a car crash is reduced 61% by the use of these safety devices.

NHTSA identified 122 collisions which involved vehicles with modern safety amenities striking each other in essentially a front-to-front crash. The specifics of each car accident were categorized and the study identifies a series of common scenarios which appear to mitigate the benefit of crumple zones, air bags and seat belts.

The most frequent, unsuprisingly, were crashes that were so severe that the safety features could not compensate for the force of the collision. If cars are going fast enough, no presently available safety equipment can absolutely protect the vehicle occupants. The study contains an interesting digression on the practicality of making vehicles less vulnerable to catastrophic crashes and the cost and engineering impracticalities of doing so.

The second most recurrent problem was so called poor structural engagement between the vehicles. In plain language it is when vehicles don't hit exactly head on and the force of the impact strips away or disengages some aspect of or benefit of the safety features.

Four other categories were identified which included corner impacts, oblique crashes, impacts with narrow objects and underrides. Interestingly, most of the deadly crashes involved some combination of the problems.