Choosing a vehicle that is not safe could cost you your life. This sobering fact is backed by statistics revealing that nearly 22,000 people died on North American roads in 2012. Thousands of those perished for a simple reason – they were not adequately protected by the vehicle in the accident.
The process of finding a safe vehicle to buy isn’t difficult. We have the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to thank for it.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require that each car meet certain minimum requirements before its maker can sell the vehicle in America. Crash-test programs operated by the NHTSA and the IIHS, which are designed to exceed federal standards, examine how capably new vehicles protect occupants in a variety of collisions. Yet, interestingly enough, while both agencies are pursuing similar goals, their crash testing procedures are very different.