"Small cars should have an easier time with the roof strength test," Adrian Lund, IIHS president said when announcing the results. "Their light weight means their roofs don't have to work as hard to keep the structure around the occupants intact in a rollover."
The roof testing procedure is based on a research showing that occupants in rollover crashes benefit from stronger roofs (common sense, actually). The testing is done by pushing a metal plate against one side of the roof at a constant speed. To get the "good" rating, the roof must withstand a force of 4 times the vehicle's weight before reaching 5 inches of crush (strength-to-weight ratio).
"Compared with the current federal standard of 1.5, a strength-to-weight ratio of 4 reflects an estimated 50 percent reduction in the risk of serious or fatal injury in single-vehicle rollover crashes," Lund added.
smart fortwo rated good after proving it has a roof more than twice as strong as the current minimum federal safety standard. The other vehicles didn't manage to do as well. The last of the pack was the Aveo, which scored the weakest. The other three vehicles subject to the testing scored "acceptable".
"We want to reward manufacturers who are ahead of their competition when it comes to providing protection in rollover crashes. We want to help consumers identify the safest vehicle choices," Lund motivated the need for this type of testing.
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