* Michigan - Mixed crash-test results for aluminum Ford F-150s
-- A tough, independent crash test shows aluminum can be a safe material for pickup bodies. But two Ford F-150 models with different configurations — one a crew cab and the other an extended cab — scored far differently in safety tests... The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on Thursday awarded Ford’s 2015 F-150 four-door crew cab its coveted Top Safety Pick. Its sister version, the two-door extended cab, got only a marginal rating in a test that measures what happens when the front corner of a vehicle hits a utility pole at 40 mph... F-150s are the only aluminum-bodied trucks on the market, and were the first full-size pickups to undergo IIHS testing of the so-called small overlap crash test...
... The test is more difficult than the head-on crashes conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It poses a challenge for the vehicle to manage crash energy... In the IIHS F-150 crew cab test, the occupant compartment remained intact. “The front-end structure crumpled in a way that spared the occupant compartment significant intrusion and preserved survival space for the driver,” IIHS said... In the IIHS test for the extended cab, the intruding structure after the crash “seriously compromised a driver’s survival space, resulting in a poor structural rating,” IIHS said... The toe pan, parking brake and brake pedal were pushed back about a foot toward the dummy, and the dashboard was jammed against the dummy’s lower legs... Tests suggested there would be a moderate risk of injuries to the right thigh, lower left leg and left foot in a real-world crash of this severity. The steering column was pushed back nearly 8 inches and came dangerously close to the dummy’s chest. The dummy’s head barely contacted the front air bag before sliding to the left and hitting the instrument panel...
(Photos by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety - 2015 Ford F-150 crew cab. This crash test duplicates what happens when the front corner of the vehicle hits a utility pole at 40 mph. In the crew cab, the dummy's position in relation to the door frame, steering wheel, and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained well. But in the extended cab, the truck’s structure fared poorly) -- Auburn Hill, MICH, USA - The Detroit News, by David Shepardson and Michael Martinez - 30 July 2015Labels: truckmakers news USA
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