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IIHS: Chevy Silverado, Dodge Ram and Nissan Titan Lack Side Safety Features

Despite Ford's recent announcement that F-150 gained a five-star rating at the newest crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the American organization says several 2009 pickup trucks lag critical side safety features, hence the poor or marginal ratings they received. Even with side airbags, passenger protection is no better than marginal, IIHS said in a public statement, criticizing the poor safety pickup trucks provide.

"The size, weight, and height of these large pickups should help them ace the side tests just like the other large pickups we've tested. Not these three," says Institute senior vice president David Zuby. "They perform worse than many cars we've evaluated."

In essence, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Dodge Ram 1500 and Nissan Titan should be way safer than small vehicles thanks to their
dimensions and weight but, despite all these advantages, all three models received very poor ratings at the latest IIHS testing.

"These large pickups don't have to work as hard as smaller vehicles do to protect their occupants. Even with their characteristic advantages, the Ram, Titan, and Silverado still miss the mark when it comes to occupant protection in side crashes," Zuby says.

Wondering which were the features that brought the three pickups so poor results? In Silverado's case, there are no torso airbags, IIHS said, with the optional side curtain airbags only protecting the occupants' heads and not their bodies. Chevrolet also needs to improve Silverado's side structure for better shock absorption, it added.

"In the Silverado tests, there was a lot of intrusion into the occupant compartment. With no torso airbags to protect the driver and rear passenger, measures recorded on the test dummies showed that rib fractures and internal organ injuries would be likely in a real-world crash of similar severity," the IIHS official explained.

In contrast to Silverado, both Titan and Ram provide better structures but they also lack several important features. Dodge's pickup for instance has no torso airbags while Titan offer them as optional.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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