It is virtually impossible to imagine the world going a day without utilizing motor vehicles to get from one place to another. Recognizing it is not likely that the nation will return to the days of horse and buggy, regulators of the car industry are continually trying to determine ways to make the act of driving safer. To that end, front-end crash tests are standard for most new automobiles.

After years of the front-end crash test, perhaps it is not surprising that in most cases cars do fairly well in the crash tests. Despite the test results, there are still an abundance of fatal motor vehicle accidents occurring each day. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, that number totals 10,000 each year. These deaths have caused the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to unveil a test in which it is not the front of the vehicle, but rather the driver's side that bears the brunt of the impact.

The test is known as the small overlap test. Rather than determining how well the structure designed to absorb the force of a crash impact fares, it, instead tests how well the compartment designed to house passengers handles a crash.

Because high-end luxury vehicles are generally the first on the road to be built with new safety features, it was this group of cars that were first subjected to the new test. Most of the 11 midsize automobiles did not fare well. One ended up with a rating deemed acceptable, the Infinity G. Two others, the Volvo S60 and the Acura TL attained the rating of good.

The test will soon be used on other vehicles as well. Hopefully the results recorded by all vehicles will help to make all motor vehicles even safer.

Source: WPXI, "New tougher crash test replicates real-world crashes," Aug. 14, 2012