In 2012, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety began conducting a new type of crash test: the small-overlap. The organization had noticed that collisions where a vehicle clips on oncoming car or strikes a pole with less than a fourth of its frontal width were particularly devastating, even in vehicles that earned top safety ratings.
Since introducing the small-overlap crash test, many automakers have been shaping up, and improving protections against small-overlap collisions. The IIHS typically only conducts this test on the driver's side of a vehicle, however, and when the same test was done on the passenger side of eight crossover SUVs that earned good safety ratings on the driver's side, the results were scary.
All but one of the eight vehicles failed to offer the same protection on the passenger side as they did on the driver's side.
The one crossover SUV to earn a good rating on both the left and right sides of the vehicle was the 2016 Hyundai Tucson.
Visit Billingsley Hyundai of Lawton to test drive new vehicles that won't leave your passenger vulnerable.
