IIHS – Rear Seat Passengers at Risk in Small Cars

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Most small cars don’t provide good protection for rear-seat passengers, according to the latest data from crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.* None of the five small cars IIHS evaluated earns a good rating, according to data released today. The Honda Civic sedan and Toyota Corolla sedan are rated acceptable. The Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra and Subaru Crosstrek are rated poor.

“These results highlight one of the key reasons that we updated our moderate overlap front crash test,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “In all the small cars we tested, the rear dummy ‘submarined’ under the seat belt, causing the lap belt to ride up onto the abdomen and increasing the risk of internal injuries.”

The updated test adds a dummy in the back seat behind the driver. The driver dummy is the size of an average adult man. The rear dummy represents a small woman or 12-year-old child. IIHS researchers also developed new metrics that focus on the injuries most frequently seen in back-seat passengers.

For a vehicle to earn a good rating, there can’t be an excessive risk of injury to the head, neck, chest, abdomen or thigh, recorded by the second-row dummy. The dummy should remain correctly positioned during the crash without sliding forward beneath the lap belt, aka submarining, and the head should remain a safe distance from the front seatback and the rest of the vehicle interior. A pressure sensor on the rear dummy’s torso is used to check whether the shoulder belt is too high, which can make the restraint system less effective.

IIHS started the updated moderate overlap front test in 2022 after research showed that in newer vehicles the risk of a fatal injury is now higher for belted occupants in the rear than for those in front. “This is not because the rear seat has become less safe. Rather, the front seat has become safer because of improved airbags and advanced seat belts that are rarely available in back. Even with these developments, the back seat remains the safest place for young children, who can be injured by an inflating front airbag,” IIHS said.

The updated test adds a dummy in the back seat behind the driver. The driver dummy is the size of an average adult man. The rear dummy represents a small woman or 12-year-old child. IIHS researchers also developed new metrics that focus on the injuries most frequently seen in back-seat passengers.

*The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is an independent, nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths, injuries and property damage from motor vehicle crashes through research and evaluation and through education of consumers, policymakers and safety professionals. It is wholly supported by auto insurers and insurance associations.