IIHS Top Safety Pick ratings to include pedestrian protection
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February 25, 2019 12:00 AM

IIHS ratings to measure pedestrian protection

Eric Kulisch
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    The view from inside a Subaru Forester

    The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is preparing to add pedestrian protection to the criteria for its coveted Top Safety Pick ratings next year, a move that could help speed the deployment of the crash-prevention technology across the automotive fleet.

    The move comes in response to the rise in deadly crashes involving pedestrians. In 2017, there were 5,977 pedestrian fatalities, a 45 percent increase from the low point in 2009, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.

    Vehicles with pedestrian protection systems can detect and brake for pedestrians using a combination of automatic emergency braking systems, tiny cameras and radar sensors in the front grille that continuously scan the roadway and horizon for pedestrians, and in some cases bicyclists or animals, that might cross ahead.

    "We want to encourage manufacturers to include pedestrian detection capabilities as they equip more of their vehicles with automatic emergency braking systems," David Aylor, the institute's manager of active safety testing, said in a statement accompanying an IIHS evaluation of 11 crossovers with pedestrian protection systems. "We also want to arm consumers with information about these systems so they can make smart choices when shopping for a new vehicle."

    IIHS, funded by the insurance industry, scours claims data and operates its own labs and test tracks to identify areas for improvement in vehicle safety. While it has no power to mandate changes, it plays an important role in the adoption and refinement of advanced safety features, because automakers compete for the group's annual Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ ratings, which can influence car shoppers.

    Unlike the federal government, with its five-star crash-safety ratings, IIHS typically changes its criteria from year to year, adding new tests and requiring better performance on existing tests to qualify for its highest rating.

    The results are in...

    The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s ratings on pedestrian crash prevention systems for 11 small and midsize crossovers:
    Superior

    • 2018-19 Honda CR-V
    • 2019 Subaru Forester
    • 2019 Toyota RAV4
    • 2019 Volvo XC40

    Advanced

    • 2019 Chevrolet Equinox
    • 2018-19 Hyundai Kona
    • 2019 Kia Sportage
    • 2018-19 Mazda CX-5
    • 2019 Nissan Rogue

    Basic

    • 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander
    • No credit

    2018-19 BMW X1

    How the tests work

    Pedestrian crash prevention ratings will be part of the criteria for the 2020 Top Safety Pick awards, spokesman Joseph Young said in an email to Automotive News.

    IIHS also tests front crash prevention systems, headlights and rear crash prevention systems.

    The crossover tests just completed simulate an adult pedestrian entering the road from the right, a child darting into the street from behind two parked cars and an adult walking in the vehicle's travel lane near the edge of the road.

    Vehicles were scored according to their average speed reductions in five repeated test runs on dry pavement at speeds ranging from 12 mph to 37 mph. IIHS gives credit in the 37 mph parallel adult test to systems that issue a timely warning to the driver.

    Crossover performance

    Nine of the 11 vehicles tested earned "advanced" or "superior" ratings. The 2018-19 Honda CR-V, 2019 Subaru Forester, 2019 Toyota RAV4 and 2019 Volvo XC40 performed the best, while the BMW X1 didn't meet any of the test parameters and was not rated. IIHS video footage of the test showed the X1 striking the pedestrian dummy at full speed.

    Only the Forester and RAV4 avoided hitting the dummies in every perpendicular test. And only the CR-V and Forester earned credit for issuing a warning in the parallel adult test before automatically braking to mitigate the impact with the dummy.

    Roughly two-thirds of front crash prevention systems offered on 2019 models have pedestrian detection capabilities, IIHS said.

    A 2018 analysis by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an IIHS affiliate, found Subaru's EyeSight system with pedestrian detection cut the rate of likely pedestrian-related insurance claims by 35 percent, compared with the same vehicles without the system.

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