Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 1, 1993 TAG: 9303010108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RUCKERSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
VA. COUNTRYSIDE HOME TO CAR-CRASH TESTS
Two impossibly mangled cars greet visitors to a new high-technology research center where the insurance industry is testing automobile safety claims.The two Chrysler LeBarons are displayed in the lobby, the twisted metal and crumpled windshields still hanging as they were the day the cars collided near Culpeper nearly three years ago. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is showcasing the cars because the crash marked the first known collision of two cars with air bags. Both drivers walked away.
"It's really extraordinary that there weren't more serious injuries, and it shows very dramatically the value of air bags," said Frances Seeger, vice president and spokeswoman for the insurance-funded group.
The insurance industry began lobbying more than 20 years ago for greater use of air bags in cars on the theory that fewer deaths and injuries mean fewer costly claims.
The center has conducted more than a dozen crash tests since opening Dec. 15 about 20 miles north of Charlottesville. Many of the tests are designed to be a counterbalance to those already done by the auto industry and the federal government, Seeger said.
"It's an independent perspective," Seeger said. Armed with their own research, insurers believe they can better press automakers, Congress or federal regulators to make safety changes.
Insurers hope the results will help keep drivers safer and claims lower.
"Their information is very widely respected," said Katherine Hutt, spokeswoman for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a public interest lobbying group sometimes allied with the insurers.
"They are very up-front about where the funding is coming from, and I don't think there is anyone who doubts their research is completely objective."
Some tests use electronic dummies to determine how well certain cars protect drivers and passengers. The $70,000 models are designed to react as a human body would, with sensors that can tell engineers whether a particular crash would have caused broken bones, trauma or death.
Insurers also are using the new center to test structural and design features that may not affect a car's safety, but do affect the amount paid in damage claims. For example, tests are under way on the bumpers of new four-door sedan models to see how they withstand 5-mph crashes into poles and barriers.
"We won't tell auto manufacturers, `here's what you should do,' but we will offer suggestions and let the public know results of our research," Seeger said.
The Arlington-based IIHS hopes public opinion on some safety matters will follow the same course as the debate over air bags.
No amount of research could convince automakers to install air bags routinely. But when car buyers began to demand air bags, automakers responded, Seeger said.
Half the annual cost of automobile insurance premiums, about $50 billion, covers payouts for death and injury, said David Snyder, senior counsel for the American Insurance Association, which lobbies for home and auto insurers in Washington.
"The best way to reduce the cost of insurance premiums is to reduce death, injury and loss on the highway," Snyder said.
In the past, insurers relied on outside tests, some done by carmakers, to rate the safety of various car models. Insurers may charge nearly 50 percent higher premiums on cars judged the least safe.
"As long as the research is legitimate and they are really trying to improve safety I think it's a good deal," said Diane Steed, president of the Coalition for Vehicle Choice, which lobbies for American carmakers.
The tests, each costing about $35,000, are done on a one-of-a-kind track. Cars or trucks can be propelled into one another or into a 320,000-pound steel barrier. The barrier moves on cushions of air to simulate various kinds of crashes.
The impact is filmed by cameras capable of shooting 1,000 frames a second.
"An air bag deploys in a 25th of a second, so you need extremely fast camera work to catch it," Seeger said.
The 299-member IIHS paid $8.5 million for the test and study center. It chose a site on hilly farmland in Greene County largely because the area already was part of an insurance-funded study of highway crashes, Seeger said.
The IIHS has studied about 500 crashes annually in seven central Virginia counties since 1987. The data is used to establish patterns of injuries among car models and design.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.