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WASHINGTON The government is dropping plans for a new vehicle crash test already done by the insurance industry.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is worried about the possible consequences of the offset test, in which the front end of a new vehicle hits a barrier at an angle, at speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour.

Government researchers say automakers are already making front ends more rigid to pass the test, done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. But the researchers worry that the test results could lead to vehicle modifications that result in more lower-body injuries.

A spokesman for the agency says they don't want to "address one safety problem and along the way create a new one."

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says there's no evidence supporting the government's argument.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.  (See the Fair Use notice, below.)

A second, longer version of this article is also shown below.

 DSA Comments   It would appear that the NHTSA considers that it knows more about crash testing than:

• the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [IIHS], as mentioned above;

• Euro NCAP

• ANCAP (Australia)

• Volvo

• Honda

      ....all of which perform offset crash testing, and all of which are among the world leaders in vehicle safety.

     Perhaps the NHTSA would like to publish the research which shows that offset crash testing is somehow creating a new road safety problem -- especially given the fact that America's road safety is among the very worst of all developed nations. [Details here.] 

Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.

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Second Version  (by Ken Thomas, AP, in the Washington Post)

WASHINGTON -- Auto safety officials abandoned plans Friday for an additional crash test on new vehicles, saying it could lead to production changes that might actually bring more leg injuries.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said more research was needed on a test in which only a portion of a vehicle's front end strikes a barrier at speeds of 35 to 40 mph.

Similar versions of the test are used by the Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and groups in Europe, Australia and Japan.

NHTSA researchers found that automakers were building vehicles with more rigid front ends in order to pass the tests, and they asserted the stiffer front ends could lead to car occupants sustaining more injuries to lower extremities.

"It just doesn't make sense to us to address one safety problem and along the way create a new one," said NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson.

NHTSA conducts its frontal-impact test at 35 mph, measuring the equivalent of two identical vehicles striking each other head-on. The IIHS, which is funded by the insurance industry, has the driver's side of the front end strike a barrier at 40 mph.

Adrian Lund, the Institute's chief operating officer, said no evidence supports the government's contention that the offset tests could lead to more injuries.

He said the modern tests have helped lead to safer vehicles, pointing to a recent review by the Institute of the 2005 Chevrolet Uplander. The minivan received a good frontal crash-test rating, while its predecessor, the 1997 Pontiac Trans Port, was rated poorly.

NHTSA said it remains concerned about an estimated 85,000 lower-extremity injuries every year linked to frontal offset crashes. It plans to continue to conduct research on ways of reducing the injuries and indicated that a new proposal could be offered once the testing is completed.

The decision follows a report last spring by the Government Accountability Office that said NHTSA needs to upgrade its crash-test program to account for more sport utility vehicles on the nation's highways and pressing safety problems such as more rollover crashes.

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