Since 2012, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been conducting driver-side small overlap frontal crash tests. However, it was only in 2017 that it began to test frontal crash protection for the front passenger’s side. After testing several newer two-row pickups, the IIHS has concluded that passengers are, in fact, at a higher risk for injury or death than drivers are. Pickup owners in California may want to know more.
Auto industries tend not to see driver and passenger safety as equally important. In the crash tests, it was discovered that the passenger’s side in these modern pickups would struggle to maintain its structure upon colliding with a vehicle or other object. The Toyota Tundra had the worst performance and was rated “poor.”
Above that were five pickups with “marginal” performance: the Nissan Frontier and four GM trucks: the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and GMC Sierra 1500. Next came the Honda Ridgeline and Toyota Tacoma with a rating of “acceptable” and three pickups with a “good” score: the Ford F-150, Ram 1500 and Nissan Titan.
Compared to this, all but two scored a “good” for the driver’s side. The Tundra and Frontier scored “marginal” in this regard. As for why the Tundra scored so low, the lack of recent redesigns is one possible explanation.
Passengers who are injured in a crash may wonder if they can pursue a car accident case. It all depends on who was negligent because one will be filing against that party’s auto insurance company. Victims may want a lawyer to assist with their case because it is hard to negotiate for a settlement alone. Sometimes, insurance companies can be adamant in not paying out the deserved amount, in which case victims may need to prepare for litigation.