Crash Tests Reveal Neck Injury Risks

July 2007

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has tested the rear-end collision protection of many minivan, pickup truck, and SUV models, and the results are damaging. About 25 percent of the 82 seat types reviewed received the highest grade of “good,” while over 40 percent of SUV, minivan, and pickup seats got the lowest possible ranking of “poor.”

Seat models were judged by their dynamic rating in a crash simulation, as well as the geometry of their seat / head restraints. Nine seat types were not even crash tested because their geometry was inadequate. Of those tested, Honda and Subaru SUV seats had the finest showings. Meanwhile, manufacturers such as Chrysler and Toyota struggled to get passing marks for their SUVs and minivans.

But it was Toyota that prevailed with the only pickup truck to receive a “good” rating, the Toyota Tundra. Pickup trucks in general languished in comparison with almost 80 percent of all pickup seats ranking as either “marginal” or “poor,” while SUVs and minivans saw 62 percent of their seats receive similar marks.