You know, one factor (back to the physics) in safety is actually speed.
Much as we enthusiasts (who clamor for the lifting of highway speed limits) don't want to admit it... speed is an important factor in safety. Or actually, more accurately, the difference in velocity between various vehicles on the road.
The faster the traffic flows, the higher the combined momentum of the cars on the road.
That's why we can talk about actually being hit while in a Charade here, and still be alive... whereas in the US, you'd be paste across the road...
In other words... despite the huge number of fender benders inside the city... rush hour traffic is a perfectly safe place to be...
But free-flowing traffic... ugh... it's amazing how many people come to a dead stop and swerve (or swerve from a U-Turn) in front of vehicles travelling at 60 km/h here.
Ang pagbalik ng comeback...
Unsafe?
Go and tell it to the driver of this Mazda3 HB:
http://www.bigbigcar.com/boards/Defa...?g=posts&t=204
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Yes it's true... Like in most of US, it's not as common to see fender bender damages on cars but crashes are crashes hehe.
I love this announcement made by the safety engineers at Volvo.
"After decades of research and development in our car designs we have finally discovered the most important safety feature of the car: The DRIVER."
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Mabilis pangyayari, mas priorty ko pag stabilize ng kotse, just imagine na nasa muka mo na halos yung headlight ng trak... hehehe... nabangga niya kasi ako sa left side, pero hindi niya kagad napansin. Parang train na nabangga isang kotse na naka sa riles. Ang nakakatuwa lang kahit na wasak yung buong side ng auto ko umaandar pa din nakapasok pa ko sa trabaho. hehehe...![]()
Palagay ko tama si Niky. Mas malaking factor ang 'safety' (survivability siguro dapat itawag dito) sa US at even more sa Germany kesa dito. Simply because they go a heck of a lot faster and with hardly a pause in their speed unlike dito.
i think small vehicles (compact cars and compact suvs) are unsafe.. why? have you heard of the news recently? a honda cr-v was cruising along daang hari near bacoor when it hit a tree, the airbags deployed but the driver was killed.. the driver was also wearing a seatbelt but he died coz the tree collapsed on the vehicle pinning it and the driver.
and with recent news that midsize and large suvs often involved in collisions with bigger trucks and even falling down the skyway (kenneth quintal incident), their drivers have always escape death.
^that crv hit the tree sideways, it collapsed the B pillar (no side or curtain airbags), kaya walang laban yung driver who worked at a call center. although kahit may side/curtain airbags mukhang labo pa rin since sobrang collapse yung doors and B pillar ng gen2 crv nya.
pag front impact ibang usapan siguro
Collision with an object with infinite mass (like a tree, building post, or other reinforced structure) will definitely cause the most extensive kind of damage especially if it has a small profile like the tree trunk or a lamp post. A side impact against these is particularly dangerous because aside from what Bluebimmer posted, you do not have any safe crumple zones when it comes to side impacts.
I am not sure about Philippine version CRV's but I know some models are equipped with side impact beams which of course protects against this kind of mishap. Needless to say if the driver was at a high rate of speed the deceleration forces will be much greater than when hitting it at a lower speed. Side curtain airbags help protect both the head and upper body from contacting the other object (glass breaks). Front airbags only protect against frontal collisions, side curtain airbags protect against side impacts, which I don't think the CRV had.
^ syempre yung nabagsakan may mamatayan, pero yung bumagsak total wreck yung sasakyan pero buhay pa rin yung driver.
imho compact cars are unsafe...but not because of anything inherently bad about them. when everybody else is driving SUVs unsafe talaga siya; the same way driving an SUV is unsafe when everybody else has a tank.
on the flipside, you you're safer in an SUV, you're bound to cause more harm to the cars around you when things go wrong.
if you are so used to driving taller SUV's like me, talagang paranoia to the max pag nag-drive kayo ng mini-car say my bro's Hyundai Getz. ni wala compartment sa likod eto, tapos walang abs airbags. pero I learned to adjust
Going off on a tangent here ... I've been wondering if hatchbacks like the new Impreza are less safe than the sedan version -- and how much so?![]()
Here's a few answers to your query
'08 Impreza Crash Test Rating IIHS
'08 Impreza Hatch Crash Test Rating NHTSA
'08 Impreza 4 dr Sedan Crash Test Rating NHTSA