Safety is boring, right?
Maybe not. When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says all but one 2016 pickup truck is likely to cause severe lower leg, ankle and foot injuries during a 40 mph frontal crash; safety starts to peak even our interest.
Slow motion crash videos are also fascinating to watch. So, we went ahead and covered all of the IIHS’ 2016 pickup crash tests in this week’s News Refresh :
The RAM Crew and Quad Cabs reached a maximum intrusion of 16 to 17 inches according to IIHS! Yikes.
Just compare the RAM 1500 Quab Cab (right) to the Ford F-150 Supercab (left) !
We’re hoping FCA does what Ford did; uses these damning results to make improvements to next year’s models.
As of right now it looks like the Blue Oval is the safest bet for keeping your legs in 2016. Here’s the full breakdown from IIHS :
Do reports like this sway you one way or another when it comes to choosing your ride?
If so, you can read the details of their full report here :
Transcript :
Hi guy’s it’s Ken with this week’s News Refresh.
We can debate our favorite truck brand’s off-road chops, reliability, towing and horsepower numbers until the end of time, but those aren’t the only reasons to buy a truck.
Another reason so many people like pickups is because you feel a lot safer when you’re higher and heavier than all the other crazy drivers on the road.
In that regard only 1 pickup brand can claim that crown for 2016. There’s only one way to find out who! Watching slow motion crash videos.The nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety did three tests on 2016 full size pickups, and only one of them came out on top!
They conducted 2 frontal crash tests, side impact and roof crush tests to determine the likelihood of death or serious injury in the event of a collision.
Last year, IIHS discovered the Ford F-150 extended cab lacked many of the structural countermeasures that helped the crew cab earn their top safety grades.
So let’s see if the Blue Oval and the rest of the pickup industry were able to learn from their mistakes.
So RAM, Chevy, Toyota and Ford all earned good ratings when it came to the moderate overlap front test, side test and head restraint evaluations. So that’s a great start for all our full size contenders.
Things get a bit tricker when it comes to the roof crush test though.
The RAM 1500s performed the worst here with a marginal grade from IIHS. The Tundra CrewMax scored a grave above it at acceptable and four pickups led the pack with good ratings from the organization. According to IIHS 44 percent of occupant deaths in pickups are in rollovers.
The small overlap was the hardest test of all for trucks. IIHS noticed consistent moderate to severe intrusion into the driver footwell during this test; which could trap a driver’s legs and lead to serious lower leg, ankle and foot injuries.
At the bottom of the pile was the RAM 1500 Crew Cab and RAM 1500 Quad Cab which both earned marginal ratings overall and poor ratings for structure. The maximum intrusion during the small overlap test for the RAMs reached 16-17 inches.
Larger crew cabs from Chevy and Toyota didn’t fair too much better either. The Silverado 1500 Crew Cab and Tundra CrewMax both earned marginal ratings during this test. Their double cab variants on the other hand both picked up acceptable ratings in the small overlap crash tests.
Ford’s F-150s, including their 2016 model SuperCabs were the only large pickups to clinch a good rating in the small overlap crash test. They clearly took last year’s results to heart when IIHS gave them the SuperCabs a marginal rating in the same test.
The Blue Oval is the only badge that will be on trucks with a Top Safety Pick from IIHS but what do you think about these results? Do they make you reconsider your favorite pickup or are they just a bunch of bunk? You can let us know in our poll here!
FCA defended their RAMs by saying “Our vehicles are designed for real-world performance and no single test determines overall, real-world vehicle safety.”
The pickup crash test battle was the biggest news this week so until next time I’m Ken – and you’ve just been refreshed!
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