Relevance of IIHS crashworthiness ratings

[berkeman]

Yes, but you have to balance that against the reduction in injury and death caused by the lower chance of ejecting the occupants, as well as the ability to better contain limbs and body parts during a rollover.

You don't get ejected if you are lawfully wearing your seatbelt. And I have been in high speed rollover accidents (well just one thankfully). Hold onto the steering wheel or your seatbelt or the door handles. Your arms will not flail out the windows.

 

[cjl]

Not everyone does that though, and crash safety is designed around what actually happens, not what should happen. There's a reason racecars use window netting, for example.

 

[OCR]

A very easy-to-apply safety measure to compensate for the lack of curtain airbags is wearing a helmet.

Jack, your comment deserves more than a simple like. . . because it's so very true. This might be just a little off topic, but it certainly relates to the helmet issue. . .

On October 9, 2007, at 2:40 PM, HFEO #1 succumbed to his injuries at San Jose Regional Medical Center. His fatal injury was from a single violent impact to the head from blunt force trauma.

Heavy Fire Equipment Operator #1 was a man named Matt Will . . . it's possible he

might have survived, had he been wearing a crash helmet. . . ?
This is a 24 page PDF report about the incident. . . I remember it well. .

California Department of Forestry - 2007-10-08-matt-will-final.pdf

.