Lindsey Schmidt, 29 and 4 months pregnant, Owen Schmidt, 6, Weston Schmidt, 4, Kaleb Schmidt, 21 months were killed in a collision while driving in a green 2014 Subaru Outback.
The collision occurred with a 25-year old man from Maneno driving a grey 2002 Chevrolet S10. The man survived. The collision occurred around 8:30 AM on Monday, July 24th, 2017 at the intersection of Yates Avenue and Corning Road in Beecher, Illinois (Will County, Washington Township). Lindsey and Kaleb died at the scene; Weston died Tuesday evening at 5:55 PM and Owen died at 2:39 AM Thursday. The children are survived by their father, Lindsey’s husband.
How
Per reports from the Chicago Tribune and ABC 7 Chicago, Lindsey was driving her boys to VBS (vacation bible camp) at Trinity Lutheran Church when the crash occurred a block from their home in Beecher, Illinois. They were northbound on Yates Avenue and were struck on the driver’s side by the male driver, who was traveling east on Corning Road and did not yield at the stop sign.
Police estimate the crash occurred at 55 mph per the sole survivor of the collision, who stated that his cruise control was set at that speed. The collision forced both vehicles off the road into a nearby field. The pickup driver was taken to St. James Hospital and later to Christ Medical Center where he was described as in stable condition; he underwent minor surgery due to a large arm laceration.
Lindsey and Kaleb were pronounced dead at the scene. Kaleb’s brothers were transported to St. Margaret Hospital in Indiana and later airlifted to Chicago. Weston was pronounced dead in Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago at 5:55 PM on Tuesday; he had been placed on life support the previous day. His older brother Owen was placed in a medical coma and passed away two days later at 2:39 AM Thursday.
Per a minister at the church, Lindsey had lost a brother to a car crash in the same town 12 years ago. The pickup driver was initially cited for not yielding to a stop sign, but the charges were dropped to avoid double jeopardy complications while investigations probed the possibilities of more serious infractions (e.g., chemical inebriation or phone use). He was described as cooperative with the authorities, and said he had been on his way to work and did not know the area.
Why
The Outback is one of the safest vehicles on the road. But like every other vehicle, it isn’t designed to protect occupants from side impacts above ~30 mph.
This is another in an endless line of tragedies in our butcher-worthy road network. Reviewing the facts as presented, it seems clear that the man driving the S10 was responsible for the collision. We don’t yet know how he was distracted (e.g., a phone, drugs, alcohol, fatigue, daydreaming…), but we can analyze the crash and the larger ramifications of the tragedy.
The Outback
The ’14 Outback is one of the safest cars on the road, and one of the best vehicles you could ask to be in before an imminent side impact. It received a “good” score overall and in all subcategories in the IIHS side impact test as well as a 5 star NHTSA side score. The side impact intrusion resistance ranged between 15 and 17.5 cm, which is one of the best side impact scores you can get in a station wagon even in 2017. It was a good vehicle.
With that said, the Outback was designed to handle 143.7KJ of kinetic energy in a side impact collision safely. In my experience calculating forces, individuals tend to survive up to 200% of designed force tolerances in their vehicles. Above that, however, survival odds drop significantly; I’d estimate the survival rate at 300% of expected forces drops to somewhere around 33%. Around how many KJ of energy did the S10 transfer?
The 2002 S10 weighs 3,016-4,039 lbs, depending on the trim level. It comes with a “marginal” frontal score. Estimating the weight as 3,500 lbs and given the likely speeds of the collision (let’s use the provided estimate of 55 mph), the collision likely imparted at least 480KJ of energy into the Outback / S10. The standard side impact test simulates 143KJ of energy (a 3300-lb sled impacting a vehicle at 31 mph). In other words, the Outback faced 336% of the force it would have experienced in the types of crashes cars are rated to make survivable. Given these forces, it is sadly understandable that the occupants of the Outback succumbed to their injuries, even with the use of seat belts and car seats.
The S10 driver’s survival was expected, in contrast, as he experienced a frontal impact that featured survivable forces. Despite the marginal frontal score, the S10 would have been expected to perform reasonably safely in a 254KJ collision, which means its occupant experienced 188% of tested forces. His survival was almost guaranteed as a result.
Vision Zero
Looking at the collision through the lens of personal responsibility, it’s easy to start and stop with blame centered squarely on the S10’s driver. However, we’re never going to improve our road safety figures significantly as long as we continue to rely on people to behave safely with a minimum of external influences. Best practices–i.e., Vision Zero principles–stipulate that a road like that on which the Schmidts tragically lost their lives and which turned Lindsey’s husband into a widower and robbed him of four of his children should never have existed.
Specifically, VZ principles forbid speed limits above 50 kph (31mph) at intersections where the potential for side impacts exist. To put it another way, if that intersection had been designed in accordance with best practices, every member of both vehicles should have survived, because the Outback was designed to protect occupants–to the degree to which they’d have been able to leave the vehicle with zero to minimal injury–in a 31 mph crash. That’s what it means to have a “good” IIHS or NHTSA side impact score. It’s no coincidence that this is where VZ sets the speed limit for such intersections.
A large factor in why many European countries are experiencing glorious decreases in car deaths year after year is because they’re putting these kinds of principles into place. The longer we continue to beat the bloody drum of “personal responsibility” and “paying attention”, the longer we’ll ring the church bells for needless tragedies. T-bone intersections become death traps above PSLs of 30 mph. Undivided highways become bloodbaths above PSLs of 43 mph. Any road with a PSL above 20 mph becomes a gauntlet for pedestrians. These principles aren’t going to change with more air bags and crumple zones. We either engineer drivers out of the equation (through transportation alternatives and self-driving vehicles) or we engineer the roads to be safer; ideally, we do both. But as long as people aren’t taking the bus, riding bicycles, and reclining in self-driving vehicles, the most effective approach to increase the safety of our road network is to equip it with speed limits that respect the boundaries of human crash tolerances.
I love station wagons and I’m pretty fond of hatchbacks. Unfortunately, neither are nearly as popular today in the US as they used to be. They’re still all the rage in Europe (where the roads are safer and the cars are smaller), but in the US and Canada, they’ve largely been replaced by SUVs, which have largely been replaced by crossovers. At any rate, I’m still a fan of them, and there’s a growing number of folks around the US who feel the same way.
However, if you’ve got a family, or are simply safety-conscious, you might be concerned about giving up something by choosing a station wagon or hatchback over an SUV or a minivan. The good news is that you don’t have to sacrifice safety for the practicality of a good wagon. In fact, the leading wagons are among the safest vehicles on the road; you just have to know which ones to look for.
Here’s a recap of my favorites on the market at the moment, along with leading safety features and 3 across car seat guides for fellow parents. The wagons are sorted by levels of side impact resistance, given the importance of reducing B-pillar penetration in surviving side impacts and the high fatality rate of side impact collisions. I’ll write a similar comparison of hatchbacks (e.g., vehicles like the Prius, Golf, 500L, and Impreza) later on.
If you’re looking for luxury combined with safety in wagon form, the E-Class wagon is the vehicle most likely to meet your needs. Based on the E-Class sedan which boasts the highest level of side impact protection of any sedan at 24 cm of B-pillar resistance, we can expect the wagon variant to perform similarly, placing the E-Class wagon at the top of station wagon safety mountain. It has great frontal small overlap and moderate overlap scores, side scores, roof scores, as well as good frontal crash protection. Like most of the vehicles on this list, it received a Top Safety Pick+ award by the IIHS in 2016 when equipped with optional frontal crash prevention packages.
The biggest strikes against the E-Class wagon are its purchase price (it currently retails at $59,000, which is more than the median family household income in the US) and the price to maintain it; like almost all luxury vehicles, you can easily end up spending thousands each year to keep it on the road, which make it a potentially hazardous choice if you don’t have the maintenance skills, social network, or pocketbook necessary to keep it happy.
My 3 across car seat guide to the E-Class wagon is here.
The Outback is the undisputed king of station wagons and hatchbacks in the US; sales estimates for the year are beyond 160,000 models, making it one of the 30 most popular vehicles sold in the country. Based on the Legacy, its sedan counterpart, the Outback includes a range of modern safety features, including solid crash scores as well as good frontal crash prevention with the purchase of an additional package. It also features 22 cm of side impact intrusion resistance, more than any other non-luxury station wagon (only the E-Class wagon is estimated to be higher at 24 cm). If you want a safe family station wagon, statistically, you’re probably going to end up with the Outback. And that’s not a bad choice at all.
My 3 across car seat guide to the Outback is here.
2017 Volvo V90
The V90 is the station wagon version of Volvo’s recently released S90, which itself is a successor to the S80. Because the IIHS rarely tests luxury wagons and because Volvo, like most manufacturers, doesn’t change much from the sedan to wagon version, we can assume the V90 is structured identically to the S90 from a safety standpoint, which means it’s going to be another good choice for families, as well as a direct competitor to the E-Class wagon. We can estimate its side impact intrusion resistance at 18.5 cm due to the S90’s performance in this area. Similarly, because the S90 received a Top Safety Pick award by the IIHS for 2017, we can expect the V90 to be at the same level of recognition by the IIHS.
The primary downside to the V90 is the fact that it costs almost as much as the E-Class Wagon at $55,000 MSRP while having no availability whatsoever in the used market due to its debuting as a 2017 model year vehicle.
My 3 across car seat guide to the V90 is coming soon.
The Jetta SportWagen design is the oldest of the vehicles on this list, but it competes admirably against the rest. Dating back to 2009, the current design is still relevant among the competition with 15.5 cm of side impact intrusion resistance, as well as good frontal, side, and roof scores. It’s important to note that the IIHS has not evaluated the SportWagen for small overlap performance, so this area is likely poor or marginal. However, in the ultimate test of driver safety–actual driver death records–the IIHS found the ’09-’11 SportWagen to do just as good of a job as the ’10-’11 Outback with a driver death rate of 6, one of the lowest of all vehicles surveyed.
My 3 across car seat guide to the Jetta wagon is here.
Like its larger sibling the V90, the V60 is the wagon version of a sedan, the S60. And like the S90 (on which the V90 is based), the V60 is outfitted with a wide array of safety features and scores well in a range of areas. Notably, unlike the S90 (and V90 by extension), the V60 has a good torso subscore in the side impact test. The B-pillar intrusion resistance is decent at 15.5 cm and tied with that of the SportWagen. As a nod to its good performance in a battery of IIHS tests, it received a Top Safety Pick+ award by the IIHS for 2016 when equipped with optional additional frontal crash prevention technology.
The Prius V is the reigning champion of hybrid station wagons, and its smaller cousin, the Prius, was also the safest small car sold in the US a few years ago per the IIHS’ most recent driver death rate study. As a result, I do recommend the V for families or individuals in search of a fuel efficient safe station wagon. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the current Prius V has many more safety features than the prior regular Prius that ranked well in the IIHS study. Howevr, keep in mind that as with many vehicles that rank well in actual death rate studies, I feel the performance has far more to do with the drivers of the vehicles than it does with the vehicles themselves.
The biggest strikes against the Prius V from a side impact standpoint are that it only offers 10.5 cm of intrusion resistance, earning it an “acceptable” subscore in that area from the IIHS (who prefer to see at least 12.5 cm), and the fact that the head protection for rear passengers scored “marginal”, indicating there’d not be an adequate level of head protection in an actual side impact collision. This is something Toyota needs to fix, and soon. That said, the vehicle still received a Top Safety Pick+ award by the IIHS for 2016 when equipped with optional additional frontal crash prevention technology.
My 3 across car seat guide to the Prius V is here.
Conclusions
In conclusion, while these aren’t the only station wagons worth looking at from a safety perspective in the United States, these are definitely the primary players worth considering if safety is a priority.
Each vehicle here has its benefits; if you’re looking for the safest vehicle on paper, the most expensive, or the most luxurious, you’ll want the E-Class wagon. If you’re interested in the cheapest to maintain, you’ll want the Prius V. If you’re looking for the absolute cheapest to buy on the used market, you’ll want the SportWagen. The most ground clearance and the most popular? That’s the Outback. Some luxury without E-Class attractiveness to thieves? The V90 or the V60, depending on your budget and size requirements. Of course, you can look at each of these vehicles in entirely different ways. The most important thing to remember, however, is that at these levels of safety, how you drive will make far more of a difference than what you drive.
We can’t control everything. The safest option is still not driving at all, followed by driving as little as possible. But if you’ve got to drive, drive safely, and do your best to choose a safe vehicle. To that end, my guides to the various safety levels available in used and new vehicles on the market are worth reading.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s exciting to see where we’re headed in vehicle safety these days. I’ll have followup articles soon comparing comparing car and SUV safety along the same metrics. Stay tuned, remember to avoid common mistakes parents make with car seats, and check out some 3 across car seat guides while you’re here.
The Q7 is the best SUV you can buy for side impact protection today.
Side impact collisions are among the most dangerous kinds of collisions we ever face in a passenger-sized vehicle. In order to keep our loved ones safe if we’re ever unfortunate enough to be involved in a t-bone, it helps to have some of the latest technology on our side. To that end, I’ve spent the last several years compiling lists of vehicles in various classes with the best crash test performance in side impacts to help parents and families make better new and used buying decisions. Previous articles in this series are below:
How dangerous are side impact collisions compared to frontal or rear collisions?
To put it simply, side impact collisions are the collisions that are most likely to take your life or the life of a loved one, when compared with front-, and rear-end collisions. From doing the math in an earlier post on side impact collisions, we know that even though only around 1 out of every 5 collisions involve side impacts, they lead to 1 out of every 3 vehicle occupant deaths in multiple vehicle collisions. In comparison, basically 1 out of 2 collisions involve frontal impacts, which lead to around 1 out of every 2 multiple collision deaths. Even more dramatically, while more than 1 out of every 4 collisions are rear enders, they only result in around 1 out of every 12 multiple collision deaths.
Looking at the numbers shows us side impacts are the collisions most likely to be fatal, even though they’re the least common. Knowing this, it’s worth figuring out how to reduce our risks of dying from one.
How to keep from dying in a side impact collision – what options do we have?
Unfortunately, if you live in the United States, you live in a country that isn’t the most willing to make changes to make our roads safer for everyone. In the US, you can drink much, much more before you’re considered drunk than you would in many parts of Europe (where the driver death rates are lower). Similarly, you don’t really have restrictions on how big your vehicle can be, regardless of how little experience you have as a driver. This isn’t the case in a number of other countries. You also live in a country that turns a blind eye toward many speed limits and is vehemently opposed to traffic cameras, despite their prevalence in countries with lower crash death rates. And of course, you’re also in a country where it’s hard to travel long (or short) distances inexpensively without driving.
However, until we’re willing to make a number of necessary changes, if you’re invested in keeping your family safe from death in t-bone collisions, I’d recommend you:
1.) Avoid driving (e.g., by using public transportation or by cycling or walking…eventually this leads to a critical mass where everyone is safer).
2.) Limit driving (by the same measures above and by combining trips).
3.) Drive the most side-impact-resistant vehicles possible.
Ultimately, to truly bring an end to side impact collisions, as well as to all collisions, we’re going to need to be forced to invest in the first two measures. I’d consider self-driving or autonomous vehicles to be part of “avoiding driving,” even though those aren’t going to eliminate collisions completely until the vast majority of vehicles on the road are no longer being driven by humans (the critical mass argument).
However, unless you’re in a position to completely follow step 1, you’ll need to focus on 2 and 3. Step 2 isn’t always feasible either, so this post focuses on Step 3, and deals specifically with choosing the safest SUVs and crossovers available for side impact protection in the US in 2016. I realize 2016 is close to an end, but this is also means this is the best time of the year to get discounts on current year models if you’re interested in the latest technology. Fortunately, as you’ll see below, you don’t always need the newest vehicles to be as safe as currently possible. You just need to know who’s doing the best job.
This post focuses on SUVs and crossovers and the best ones to be in if you’re unfortunate enough to be in a side impact collision.
Calculating which SUVs are the safest for side impact collisions by structural integrity (crush distance)
I’ve written about the math behind these calculations in previous posts, such as in the relevant articles on surviving side impacts in cars, minivans, and SUVs and crossovers, so hop back to those articles to read about this in detail. The short version is that the IIHS runs a side impact test. It simulates a 3300 lb SUV crashing into the side of a vehicle at 31 mph, or 143.7KJ of kinetic energy. Every vehicle deforms somewhat at the B-pillar when absorbing such an impact, and there’s a subscore in the IIHS test known as the “structure and safety cage” looks into how close the B-pillar intrudes into the center of the driver’s seat during the collision. Less intrusion is better. Let’s see who has the least intrusion right now in the family car market.
I searched through the test scores of every SUV and crossover currently available in the US to make this best-of list. I’m defining SUVs and crossovers as any vehicle that’s not a car, pickup truck, minivan, or cargo van yet capable of transporting at least five individuals. To put it simply, these are the vehicles the IIHS classifies as small, mid-sized, or large SUVs. I also made the lower threshold for inclusion in the list 23 cm of intrusion resistance, which knocked out a lot of vehicles that were present the last time I made this list. These are the best of the best.
Keep in mind that the IIHS continually updates their side impact information while gathering additional information, so in a few months, it’s likely that these numbers may be slightly different, and I’ll have another article to reflect those changes. All data is accurate as of late December 2016, and all images are either from yours truly or courtesy of Wikipedia.
The 7 safest SUVs and crossovers for side impact collisions in 2017
The current generation Audi Q7 is the safest SUV or crossover you can buy today in the US when it comes to side impact crash protection, based on its 27.5 cm of crush protection. As of this writing, no other SUV or crossover does a better job, and to be even more direct, no other vehicle does any better, out of all cars, minivans and SUVs currently on the market. In other words, when it comes to side impact protection, Audi sets the benchmark for every other vehicle to aspire to at this time. To put it in yet another way, if a Ford Escape (the best of the small SUVs for side impact resistance) crashed into you at 31 mph while you were driving a Q7 there’d be nearly a full foot of space between the center of your seat and the crushed B-pillar after the collision.
That’s impressive.
The new Q7 is also one of many Top Safety Pick+ choices on this list, which basically means that it features good scores in every crash test currently performed by the IIHS, as well as a good score in front crash prevention when equipped with optional equipment. Not every SUV on this list is sa TSP+, however, so shop carefully. 26 cm – 2016 Volvo XC90.
The current generation Volvo XC90 is hot on the heels of the Q7 with 26 cm of side impact protection, even though it also suffers from an only “acceptable” torso subscore within the overall side impact score. However, structurally, it’s a sound SUV, and I look forward to seeing how it performs in the ultimate measure of driver safety–the next set of driver death rate results a few years from now.
It’s worth noting that the previous generation of the XC90 in the 4WD trim (specifically the 2008-2011 model years) was one of the various vehicles to make the IIHS’ “zero list,” where no drivers were estimated to have lost their lives in a three year driving window. That generation of the XC90 tested at 9.5 cm of intrusion resistance.
My full 3 across car seat guide to the XC90 is available here.
Immediately after the XC90 comes the BMW X5 with a stellar intrusion-resistance score of 25 cm. Given BMW’s history of attention to safety, this isn’t surprising, but it’s still impressive.
The X5, however, is one of the SUVs on this list that is not a Top Safety Pick+, which is due to the fact that the only crash tests the IIHS has performed on it are the moderate overlap frontal test and the side impact test. The small overlap test, roof test, and head restraint tests are yet to be performed. The IIHS has yet to offer an explanation why.
My full 3 across car seat guide to the X5 is available here. 24 cm – 2016 Lexus RX.
The Lexus RX is one of only three vehicles on the list not hailing from a German automaker (the other two are the Volvos, which are Chinese-owned but Swedish-run), and it makes a strong showing with its intrusion score of 24 cm. The RX also stakes its claim as a Top Safety Pick+ and is easily going to be the most reliable vehicle on this list.
As was the case with the XC90 above, it’s worth noting that the previous generation of the RX in the 4WD trim (specifically the 2010-2011 model years) was one of the various vehicles to make the IIHS’ “zero list”, where no drivers were estimated to have lost their lives in a three year driving window. Six drivers were estimated to have died in the 2WD trim level. That generation of the RX tested at 17.5 cm of intrusion resistance.
My full 3 across car seat guide to the RX is available here.
Hot on the heels of the X5 is the GLK crossover by MB with a highly impressive intrusion score of 24 cm, equaling that of Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class sedan. Given MB’s history of developing safe vehicles, this isn’t much of a surprise. What’s more of a surprise is the fact that the GLK crossover design is at least 4 years old in this generation, meaning it has been providing an exceptional amount of safety for years that other vehicles are just beginning to approach, never mind exceed. I look forward to seeing the GLK show up on a driver death rate study; MB will need to sell more of them for it to make an appearance.
It’s also worth noting that the GLK is not a TSP+ due to the lack of a small overlap score.
My full 3 across car seat guide to the GLK is available here.
Audi makes their second appearance on the list with the Q5, which holds the impressive distinction of being the oldest model to make the top list with a design dating back to 2009. The 2015 edition was also updated with a reinforced front-end to result in a good small overlap score. I look forward to seeing the Q5 show up on a driver death rate study; Audi will need to sell more of them for it to make an appearance. However, given their position in the market as an alternative to MB and BMW, I doubt they’ll lose sleep wondering if they sell enough Q5s to show up in death rate studies, although the A4 and A6 pop up (and do very well) from time to time.
My full 3 across car seat guide to the Q5 is available here.
Volvo makes their second appearance on this list with the XC60. As with the Q5, I look forward to seeing the XC60 show up on a driver death rate study; Volvo will need to sell more of them for it to make an appearance. Given the appearance of the XC90 in the two most recent studies, I’m hopeful this means Volvo’s US car sales are on the upswing. Along with BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, and Audi, Volvo puts an awful lot of their research and development into safety technologies these days.
My full 3 across car seat guide to the XC60 is available here.
How to choose an SUV to keep you safe in side impact crashes
In conclusion, what does this all mean? Should you sell your current SUV and buy one of the above immediately? Is every other SUV on the road just not good enough?
Well, not exactly. There are a number of other great vehicles that I didn’t include on the list to save time that were literally only a centimeter or two away from appearing on the list. Ford, for example, came close with the Edge, its badge twin the Lincoln MKX, and the Explorer with 20, 20, and 19.5 cm respectively. The newly released Buick Envision clocked in at 21 cm, and the Cadillac XT5, an updated SRX, clocked in at 20 cm. There are plenty of other safe choices out there; I just focused on the very best-performing ones.
The takeaway message is that it’s worth looking beyond the overall “good” score and diving into the structural integrity subscore when searching for safe cars for this particular kind of crash. Of course, you’ll start with looking for airbags and the overall “good” score, but beyond that, if you’re choosing between two vehicles that seem good on paper, dive into this subscore and you might be surprised at what you find. And remember that just because a car isn’t anywhere near the top numbers on this list doesn’t mean it’s not safe.
Keep in mind, too, that two of the vehicles on this list, the XC90 and the RX, had previous generations that made the IIHS’ “zero list” with lower levels of side impact intrusion protection. The XC90, in particular, had 9.5 cm when tested, a figure that wouldn’t put it anywhere near the leading vehicles in the list above. Yet no drivers were reported to have died while driving one during the observed years.
We can’t control everything. The safest option is still not driving at all, followed by driving as little as possible. But if you’ve got to drive, drive safely, and do your best to choose a safe vehicle. To that end, my safe family vehicle analyses for cars and SUVs are worth reading.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s exciting to see where we’re headed in vehicle safety these days. I’ll have followup articles soon comparing comparing car and SUV safety along the same metrics. Stay tuned, remember to avoid common mistakes parents make with car seats, and check out some 3 across car seat guides while you’re here.
The 2015+ Golf / GTI is still the safest small car you can buy for side impact protection.
Side impact collisions are among the most dangerous kinds of collisions we ever face in a passenger-sized vehicle. In order to keep our loved ones safe if we’re ever unfortunate enough to be involved in a t-bone, it helps to have some of the latest technology on our side. To that end, I’ve spent the last several years compiling lists of vehicles in various classes with the best crash test performance in side impacts to help parents and families make better new and used buying decisions. Previous articles in this series are below:
How dangerous are side impact collisions compared to frontal or rear collisions?
To put it simply, side impact collisions are the collisions that are most likely to take your life or the life of a loved one, when compared with front-, and rear-end collisions. From doing the math in an earlier post on side impact collisions, we know that even though only around 1 out of every 5 collisions involve side impacts, they lead to 1 out of every 3 vehicle occupant deaths in multiple vehicle collisions. In comparison, basically 1 out of 2 collisions involve frontal impacts, which lead to around 1 out of every 2 multiple collision deaths. Even more dramatically, while more than 1 out of every 4 collisions are rear enders, they only result in around 1 out of every 12 multiple collision deaths.
Looking at the numbers shows us side impacts are the collisions most likely to be fatal, even though they’re the least common. Knowing this, it’s worth figuring out how to reduce our risks of dying from one.
How to keep from dying in a side impact collision – what options do we have?
Unfortunately, if you live in the United States, you live in a country that isn’t the most willing to make changes to make our roads safer for everyone. In the US, you can drink much, much more before you’re considered drunk than you would in many parts of Europe (where the driver death rates are lower). Similarly, you don’t really have restrictions on how big your vehicle can be, regardless of how little experience you have as a driver. This isn’t the case in a number of other countries. You also live in a country that turns a blind eye toward many speed limits and is vehemently opposed to traffic cameras, despite their prevalence in countries with lower crash death rates. And of course, you’re also in a country where it’s hard to travel long (or short) distances inexpensively without driving.
However, until we’re willing to make a number of necessary changes, if you’re invested in keeping your family safe from death in t-bone collisions, I’d recommend you:
1.) Avoid driving (e.g., by using public transportation or by cycling or walking…eventually this leads to a critical mass where everyone is safer).
2.) Limit driving (by the same measures above and by combining trips).
3.) Drive the most side-impact-resistant vehicles possible.
Ultimately, to truly bring an end to side impact collisions, as well as to all collisions, we’re going to need to be forced to invest in the first two measures. I’d consider self-driving or autonomous vehicles to be part of “avoiding driving,” even though those aren’t going to eliminate collisions completely until the vast majority of vehicles on the road are no longer being driven by humans (the critical mass argument).
However, unless you’re in a position to completely follow step 1, you’ll need to focus on 2 and 3. Step 2 isn’t always feasible either, so this post focuses on Step 3, and deals specifically with choosing the safest small cars available for side impact protection in the US in 2016. I realize 2016 is close to an end, but this is also means this is the best time of the year to get discounts on current year models if you’re interested in the latest technology. Fortunately, as you’ll see below, you don’t always need the newest vehicles to be as safe as currently possible. You just need to know who’s doing the best job.
This post focuses on small cars and the best ones to be in if you’re unfortunate enough to be in a side impact collision. There are plenty of reasons to choose small cars over larger ones, whether due to a desire to save on purchase costs, save fuel, save the planet, save parking space, save maintenance costs, or simply because they can help us live more minimally. Whatever your reasons for driving one, the decision to use one shouldn’t accompany a decision to sacrifice significant amounts of safety.
Calculating which small cars are the safest for side impact collisions by structural integrity (crush distance)
I’ve written about the math behind these calculations in previous posts, such as in the relevant articles on surviving side impacts in cars, minivans, and SUVs and crossovers, so hop back to those articles to read about this in detail. The short version is that the IIHS runs a side impact test. It simulates a 3300 lb SUV crashing into the side of a vehicle at 31 mph, or 143.7KJ of kinetic energy. Every vehicle deforms somewhat at the B-pillar when absorbing such an impact, and there’s a subscore in the IIHS test known as the “structure and safety cage” looks into how close the B-pillar intrudes into the center of the driver’s seat during the collision. Less intrusion is better. Let’s see who has the least intrusion right now in the family car market.
I searched through the test scores of every small car currently available in the US to make this best-of list. I’m defining small cars as any car capable of transporting at least five individuals while being classified as a small (compact) or mini (subcompact) car. I also made the lower threshold for inclusion in the list 20 cm of intrusion resistance, which knocked out a lot of vehicles that were present the last time I made this list. These are the best of the best.
Keep in mind that the IIHS continually updates their side impact information while gathering additional information, so in a few months, it’s likely that these numbers may be slightly different, and I’ll have another article to reflect those changes. All data is accurate as of late November 2016, and all images are either from yours truly or courtesy of Wikipedia.
The 5 safest small cars for side impact collisions in 2016
Two model years later, the Volkswagen Golf and GTI are still the most side-impact resistant small cars you can buy, and only trail the Mercedes-Benz E-Class among all cars capable of seating 5 people. Considering that the Golf costs much, much less than an E-Class sedan, it’s well worth considering as a safe and affordable small family car.
The Golf is available in several flavors, but all feature good safety scores, including the side impact frontal crash test score, and all feature a class-leading 22 cm of side impact intrusion protection.
You can read my full 3 across car seat guide to the Golf / GTI here.
The Fiat 500L continues to hold its own as one of the most structurally sound cars on the market for side impacts. However, it’s disappointing to see that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles continue to sit on their hands regarding the poor small overlap score that the 500L received in 2014. Three years later, with nothing changed, it looks like this simply isn’t a priority for FCA. That said, it’s impressive to see it close to the top of the list when it comes to side impact protection, especially considering its placement as the second-best small family car you can currently buy.
You can read my full 3 across car seat guide to the 500L here.
I was happy to write about the Dodge Dart in previous rankings for safe small cars, and am disappointed to see FCA discontinue it after the 2016 model year, as it was a well-designed small car from a safety standpoint. Fortunately, this does mean that there will be a healthy used market for the Dart for individuals and families on a budget. Unfortunately, it means that the options for great new small cars are a little slimmer this year than they were last year.
You can read my full 3 across car seat guide to the Dart here.
18.5 cm – 2016 Scion iA / Toyota Yaris iA.
The iA is a Mazda 2 that was rebranded in the US as the Scion iA before being rebranded again as the Toyota Yaris iA. Regardless of what it’s called, it’s a good car. The first minicar on the list, it features good safety scores in every area, including in the small overlap test, and even features some level of automated front crash prevention. I’m looking forward to learning more about how the iA performs in real-world conditions under the ultimate metric: the driver death rate.
Honda makes its first appearance in a car-based side impact resistance list with the new Civic. It features great safety scores all around and rounds out the top 5 by tying the iA with 18.5 cm of crush resistance. All signs point to this being the safest Civic yet, and as with every other vehicle on this list, I’m looking forward to seeing how it performs in actual driver death rate statistics.
You can read my full 3 across car seat guide to the Civic here.
How to choose a car to keep you safe in side impact crashes
In conclusion, what does this all mean? Should you sell your current car and buy one of the above immediately? Is every other car on the road just not good enough?
Well, not exactly. There are a number of other great vehicles that I didn’t include on the list to save time that were literally only a centimeter or two away from appearing on the list. The Toyota Prius, for example, was recently estimated to have been the small car with the lowest driver death rate by the IIHS, beating out a number of huge SUVs and pickup trucks. It is by all accounts one of the safest cars you can currently buy. However, the current generation didn’t make the list because it had an intrusion score of 17.0 cm the last time I checked, and I cut the list off at 18.5 cm. And to be precise, the version of the Prius that did very well was the 2010-2011 Prius, which had an intrusion score of 11-11.5 cm and wouldn’t have been anywhere near this list even if I’d extended it significantly.
There are also a number of additional vehicles that didn’t make the cutoff simply because I was only interested in the top vehicles for this post. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other safe choices out there. It just means I focused on the very best-performing ones. The 2016 Toyota Corolla, for example, wasn’t included even though it featured 18.5 cm of side impact crush resistance because its overlapping seat belt design effectively prohibits the safe transport of more than 4 passengers (or 2 car seats) at a time.
The takeaway message is that it’s worth looking beyond the overall “good” score and diving into the structural integrity subscore when searching for safe cars for this particular kind of crash. Of course, you’ll start with looking for airbags and the overall “good” score, but beyond that, if you’re choosing between two vehicles that seem good on paper, dive into this subscore and you might be surprised at what you find. And remember that just because a car isn’t anywhere near the top numbers on this list doesn’t mean it’s not safe.
We can’t control everything. The safest option is still not driving at all, followed by driving as little as possible. But if you’ve got to drive, drive safely, and do your best to choose a safe vehicle. To that end, my safe family vehicle analyses for cars and SUVs are worth reading.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s exciting to see where we’re headed in vehicle safety these days. I’ll have followup articles soon comparing comparing car and SUV safety along the same metrics. Stay tuned, remember to avoid common mistakes parents make with car seats, and check out some 3 across car seat guides while you’re here.
The 2010+ E-Class is still the safest family car you can buy for side impact protection.
Side impact collisions are among the most dangerous kinds of collisions we ever face in a passenger-sized vehicle. In order to keep our loved ones safe if we’re ever unfortunate enough to be involved in a t-bone, it helps to have some of the latest technology on our side. To that end, I’ve spent the last several years compiling lists of vehicles in various classes with the best crash test performance in side impacts to help parents and families make better new and used buying decisions. Previous articles in this series are below:
How dangerous are side impact collisions compared to frontal or rear collisions?
To put it simply, side impact collisions are the collisions that are most likely to take your life or the life of a loved one, when compared with front-, and rear-end collisions. From doing the math in an earlier post on side impact collisions, we know that even though only around 1 out of every 5 collisions involve side impacts, they lead to 1 out of every 3 vehicle occupant deaths in multiple vehicle collisions. In comparison, basically 1 out of 2 collisions involve frontal impacts, which lead to around 1 out of every 2 multiple collision deaths. Even more dramatically, while more than 1 out of every 4 collisions are rear enders, they only result in around 1 out of every 12 multiple collision deaths.
Looking at the numbers shows us side impacts are the collisions most likely to be fatal, even though they’re the least common. Knowing this, it’s worth figuring out how to reduce our risks of dying from one.
How to keep from dying in a side impact collision – what options do we have?
Unfortunately, if you live in the United States, you live in a country that isn’t the most willing to make changes to make our roads safer for everyone. In the US, you can drink much, much more before you’re considered drunk than you would in many parts of Europe (where the driver death rates are lower). Similarly, you don’t really have restrictions on how big your vehicle can be, regardless of how little experience you have as a driver. This isn’t the case in a number of other countries. You also live in a country that turns a blind eye toward many speed limits and is vehemently opposed to traffic cameras, despite their prevalence in countries with lower crash death rates. And of course, you’re also in a country where it’s hard to travel long (or short) distances inexpensively without driving.
However, until we’re willing to make a number of necessary changes, if you’re invested in keeping your family safe from death in t-bone collisions, I’d recommend you:
1.) Avoid driving (e.g., by using public transportation or by cycling or walking…eventually this leads to a critical mass where everyone is safer).
2.) Limit driving (by the same measures above and by combining trips).
3.) Drive the most side-impact-resistant vehicles possible.
Ultimately, to truly bring an end to side impact collisions, as well as to all collisions, we’re going to need to be forced to invest in the first two measures. I’d consider self-driving or autonomous vehicles to be part of “avoiding driving,” even though those aren’t going to eliminate collisions completely until the vast majority of vehicles on the road are no longer being driven by humans (the critical mass argument).
However, unless you’re in a position to completely follow step 1, you’ll need to focus on 2 and 3. Step 2 isn’t always feasible either, so this post focuses on Step 3, and deals specifically with choosing the safest family cars available for side impact protection in the US in 2016. I realize 2016 is close to an end, but this is also means this is the best time of the year to get discounts on current year models if you’re interested in the latest technology. Fortunately, as you’ll see below, you don’t always need the newest vehicles to be as safe as currently possible. You just need to know who’s doing the best job.
Calculating which family cars are the safest for side impact collisions by structural integrity (crush distance)
I’ve written about the math behind these calculations in previous posts, such as in the relevant articles on surviving side impacts in cars, minivans, and SUVs and crossovers, so hop back to those articles to read about this in detail. The short version is that the IIHS runs a side impact test. It simulates a 3300 lb SUV crashing into the side of a vehicle at 31 mph, or 143.7KJ of kinetic energy. Every vehicle deforms somewhat at the B-pillar when absorbing such an impact, and there’s a subscore in the IIHS test known as the “structure and safety cage” looks into how close the B-pillar intrudes into the center of the driver’s seat during the collision. Less intrusion is better. Let’s see who has the least intrusion right now in the family car market.
I searched through the test scores of every family car currently available in the US to make this best-of list. I’m defining family cars as any car capable of transporting at least five individuals, which knocks out most coupes and toy cars. I also made the lower threshold for inclusion in the list 20 cm of intrusion resistance, which knocked out a lot of vehicles that were present the last time I made this list. These are the best of the best.
Keep in mind that the IIHS continually updates their side impact information while gathering additional information, so in a few months, it’s likely that these numbers may be slightly different, and I’ll have another article to reflect those changes. All data is accurate as of late October 2016, and all images are either from yours truly or courtesy of Wikipedia.
The 5 safest family cars for side impact collisions in 2016
Six years since its debut, the current generation E-Class sedan is still the safest mainstream car in the United States today when it comes to side impact crash survival, based on its country-leading 24 cm of crush protection. No other family car does a better job, and only one publicly available car of any kind does better (the Lexus RC at 26 cm).
It’s worth noting as well that in the ’05-’08 model years, the E-Class Sedan was estimated to have a zero driver death rate by the IIHS, as a nod to the overall strong track record of this vehicle and its drivers. That previous generation of the E-Class sedan led to this generation.
You can read my full 3 across guide to the E-Class here.
Hot on the heels of the E-Class sedan comes the latest Outback from Subaru. Subaru continues to impress throughout their line, and their marketing themselves as a younger, fresher, and outdoorsier version of Volvo is paying off, as well as their obvious attention to safety in models like the Outback.
As I’ve said elsewhere, crash ratings are great to have, but real life survival is the ultimate test, and the recent Outback is one of the highest scorers in real life tests. In particular, the ’10-’11 Outback had a driver death rate of 6, as I wrote about here. That Outback is the generation prior to this Outback, and it had an intrusion resistance of 15-17.5 cm.
You can read my full 3 across guide to the Outback here.
The Golf scores marvelously here, tied with the Outback as the 2nd-most impact resistant car on the list. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that it’s neither a large nor a mid-sized car, but a small one. The Golf is available in several flavors, but all feature good safety scores, including the side impact frontal crash test score, and all feature a class-leading 22 cm of side impact intrusion protection.
You can read my full 3 across car seat guide to the Golf / GTI here.
The Fiat 500L continues to hold its own as one of the most structurally sound cars on the market for side impacts. However, it’s disappointing to see that Fiat has not done anything to improve the poor small overlap score that the 500L received in 2015 when tested by the IIHS. I wrote last year that Fiat would have to step up their game in that area, and they are yet to do so. That said, it’s impressive to see it close to the top of the list when it comes to side impact protection, especially considering its placement as the second-best small family car you can currently buy.
You can read my full 3 across guide to the 500L here.
Mercedes makes another of several entries in the safest side impact car rankings with the C-Class sedan, which is essentially a smaller version of their E-class sedan. The 2009-2015 models of the C-Class sedan all feature 20.5 cm of intrusion resistance at the B-pillar in the IIHS test, an incredibly impressive streak.
Of course, the true test for intrusion resistance, is real life survival, and the C-Class has also performed well here. Per the IIHS, the ’08-’11 C-Class sedan featured driver death rates of 7 and 10 in the 4WD and 2WD models respectively, which I wrote about here.
The fact that the 2009 C-Class is still one of the most intrusion-resistant vehicles you can buy 7 years after its release is noteworthy, and another testament to the safety commitment present at Mercedes-Benz.
How to choose a car to keep you safe in side impact crashes
In conclusion, what does this all mean? Should you sell your current car and buy one of the above immediately? Is every other car on the road just not good enough?
Well, not exactly. There are a number of other great vehicles that I didn’t include on the list to save time that were literally only a centimeter or two away from appearing on the list. The Subaru Legacy, for example, recently appeared on the IIHS’ “zero list” for driver deaths, and is by all accounts one of the safest cars you can currently buy. However, the current generation didn’t make the list because it had an intrusion score of 19.5 cm the last time I checked, and I cut the list off at 20 cm. And to be precise, the version of the Legacy that appeared on the zero list was the 2010-2011 Legacy, which had an intrusion score of 14 cm and wouldn’t have been anywhere near this list even if I’d extended it significantly.
There are also a number of recognized automakers like Toyota, Honda, and Volvo whose vehicles didn’t make the cutoff simply because I was only interested in the top vehicles for this post. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other safe choices out there. It just means I focused on the very best-performing ones.
The takeaway message is that it’s worth looking beyond the overall “good” score and diving into the structural integrity subscore when searching for safe cars for this particular kind of crash. Of course, you’ll start with looking for airbags and the overall “good” score, but beyond that, if you’re choosing between two vehicles that seem good on paper, dive into this subscore and you might be surprised at what you find. And remember that just because a car isn’t anywhere near the top numbers on this list doesn’t mean it’s not safe. The older E-Class sedan I mentioned with the zero driver death rate didn’t even have a “good” overall score! It was “acceptable!” Furthermore, the “structure and safety cage” score was also “acceptable,” as it was 7.5 to 9 cm, depending on which year it was manufactured. And yet, because of its drivers, the overall safety of the vehicle, and a good amount of luck, no drivers in it died for several years.
We can’t control everything. The safest option is still not driving at all, followed by driving as little as possible. But if you’ve got to drive, drive safely, and do your best to choose a safe vehicle. To that end, my safe family vehicle analyses for cars and SUVs are worth reading.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s exciting to see where we’re headed in vehicle safety these days. I’ll have followup articles soon comparing comparing car and SUV safety along the same metrics. Stay tuned, remember to avoid common mistakes parents make with car seats, and check out some 3 across car seat guides while you’re here.
35,000 Americans will die this year on the road. You don't have to be one of them. A car seat and car safety blog to promote best practices for families.
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2017 Volvo V90
25 cm – 
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18.5 cm – 2016 Scion iA / Toyota Yaris iA.
