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By Moses Akaigwe
The all-new 2023 Honda Accord recently outperformed six other midsize sedans in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) updated front moderate overlap testing (GOOD overall rating).
This included being the only model to achieve GOOD ratings in all rear passenger injury measures. Earlier this year, Accord was also named an IIHS 2023 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award winner, one of seven Honda models to achieve TSP or better.
This a cheery news for millions of Accord and other Honda cars lovers in Nigeria where the brand is assembled by Honda Automobile Western Africa LTD (HAWA) and marketed nationwide by The Honda Place (Stallion Motors).
The IIHS said in a press release same day:
“IIHS launched the updated moderate overlap front test last year after research showed that in newer vehicles the risk of a fatal injury is now higher for belted occupants in the rear than for those in front.
This is not because the rear seat has become less safe. Rather, the front seat has become safer because of improved airbags and advanced seat belts that are rarely available in back. Even with these developments, the back seat remains the safest place for young children, who can be injured by an inflating front airbag.
To encourage manufacturers to improve rear-seat protection, the updated test adds a dummy in the back seat behind the driver. The driver dummy is the size of an average adult man. The rear dummy is the size of a small woman or 12-year-old child. IIHS researchers also developed new metrics that focus on the injuries most frequently seen in backseat passengers.
For a vehicle to earn a good rating, there can’t be an excessive risk of injury to the head, neck, chest or thigh, as recorded by the second-row dummy. The dummy should remain correctly positioned during the crash without submarining.
The head should also remain a safe distance from the front seatback and the rest of the vehicle interior, and the shoulder belt should remain on the shoulder, where it is most effective. A pressure sensor on the rear dummy’s torso is used to check the shoulder belt position during the crash.
As in the original test, the structure of the occupant compartment must maintain adequate survival space for the driver, and measurements taken from the driver dummy shouldn’t show an excessive risk of injuries.
