drivemecrazy

Are you considering the idea of buying a new car? What are the specifications that you are looking for? Perhaps, the first one is the over-all appearance of the car. The next things you may be looking at will be the brand, the price, and some other things that you may deem important. However, can I ask you something? Do you consider the safety that the car offers? Maybe, yes. But how high or low is it in your list? This should be the first thing to consider, not the appearance. Of course, what will you do with the most handsome car when it will be the cause your death?

Speaking of death, car accidents oftentimes lead to this. But car researchers have been practicing a technique to guarantee that car safety will get even more effective each year. This practice is the crash testing, old knowledge it may seem, but most of us don’t know yet how this works. Well, I’ll give you a preview.

To be able to perform a crash testing, a dummy of a human being is prepared. This dummy will represent the driver in a car that is being tested. It weighs 170 pounds and stands 1.78 meters, just like a real human being. The dummy is equipped with three types of equipment—the accelerometers, load sensors, and motion sensors. The accelerometers determine the probability of injury during a crash. On the other hand, the load sensors calculate the amount of force that a crash can bring to different body parts while the motion sensors, located in the dummy’s chest, measures the deflection of the chest when it meets a crash.

Also, before the dummy is subjected to crash testing, different parts are painted with different colors. This is done to know which body part hits a particular part of the car to help the researchers strategize approaches to prevent injuries during crashes.  

There are two kinds of crash tests performed in a car. The first one is the 35 mph frontal impact. Here, the car runs at 35mph directly toward a solid concrete barrier. This crash is just the same with a car moving at 35 mph that hits a car moving at the same speed and having the same weight. The other one is the 35 mph side impact. In this test, a 3,015-pund sled, having a deformable bumper, runs continuously to the side of the test vehicle. This is equivalent to a car that crosses an intersection and is suddenly sideswiped by a car.  

When everything is ready, the crash test begins. Fifteen high-speed cameras are placed in different places in the vicinity of the testing area, including the car’s underside. Those cameras have the capability to shoot 1,000 frames or so per second. After every crash test, results follow paving the way to new discoveries. These discoveries are all essential to help improve the status of cars in the society.  

You know, it is always nice that researchers perform things like this. It does not only help in the improvement of a particular vehicle but it also helps in the decrease of casualties during accidents. Tests like this should always be taken with high regard. See, this is how air bags, seatbelts, and other protective measures are known, and this is thanks to the existence of tests like this. However, this kind of test should not just end in having the results. Many the car manufacturers always see to it that the results are studied and then given a solution. Time may come when all the cars in the market will all be safe. Therefore, ordinary people’s lives will not anymore be at stake.  

So when you buy your car, consider its safety first. Research about them because the most important thing in a car is your safety—just like what a crash test’s purpose is.