Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
I work in a trauma level 1 hospital, and I gotta tell you-all that this is reality. We don't even see the occupants of the smaller car in these type of accidents, they're pronounced dead at the scene. We do see the SUV drivers and passengers and they typically have minimal injuries.
If you pay attention to the clip, simple physics shows why the SUV defeats the safety features built into the smaller cars.
The side impact standards don't use large SUV height bumpers in their tests. The passenger compartment is essentially destroyed and side impact airbags don't stop the kind of damage that a SUV does to a small car.
I own and drive a Miata and an F250 SD diesel, so I'm on both ends of the problem, with smaller cars lie the Miata, the larger vehicle typically goes over the top of the smaller one in high speed front or rear collisions.
Most old cars, SUVs or trucks would be screwed with most vehicles slamming into the side of them at 60mph, let alone a large SUV.
I don't know about the weight, but the IIHS uses a sled that simulates an SUV.
Fifth Gear mentions an issue in that Civic vs Land Rover that is pretty bad though: vehicle height. The bumper requirements aren't very old on SUVs/trucks. The bumper on a new F-150 goes down quite a bit more than old ones. A head on collision with an older one with a car has the likelihood of the car going under the truck.
A sedan would still punch through that old Civic though. Like so many other things with car safety, a lot of reinforcements done to the sides isn't very old either.
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