Crash and Learn LIVE Edition with IIHS

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Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward, (registered trademark). Webinar Series. Text, Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute. She stands in front of a car in a warehouse lobby.

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JOAN WOODWARD: Hi. Good afternoon. I'm Joan Woodward. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm thrilled to be broadcasting live today from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Ruckersville, Virginia, beautiful Central Virginia. So welcome to our show. 

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Text, This webinar was recorded on June 14, 2023. 

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You may have heard of the IIHS and their Top Safety Picks, their vehicle ratings which help consumers better understand those safety aspects of all vehicles on the market today. We're going behind the scenes at the independent research organization today. We're going to see how IIHS works and is making our roads safer. And our session today is live, first of all. And secondly, we're going to do a crash test, so a crash test live. Anything can happen, folks. So we're really thrilled you're with us. 

So before we start, a few notes, of course, about our program. First, our disclaimer that we must always show you.

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Slide, About Travelers Institute, (registered trademark), Webinars. Text, The Wednesdays with Woodward, (registered trademark), educational webinar series is presented by the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. This program is offered for informational and educational purposes only. You should consult with your financial, legal, insurance or other advisors about any practices suggested by this program. Please note that this session is being recorded and may be used as Travelers deems appropriate. Travelers Institute. Logo, Travelers. 

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Second, I'd like to thank our partner organizations, the Master in FinTech Program at UConn, their School of Business; the MetroHartford Alliance; and the American Property Casualty and Insurance Association.

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Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward, (registered trademark). Webinar Series. Text, Powered by Every Second Matters, (registered trademark). Crash and Learn LIVE Edition with I.I.H.S. -- Logos, MetroHartford Alliance, Travelers Institute, (registered trademark), Travelers, American Property Casualty Insurance Association, (service mark), Insuring America, A.P.C.I. dot org, I.I.H.S., H.L.D.I., UCONN School of Business, M.S. in Financial Technology. 

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So, Travelers is really proud to be a member and a supporter of IIHS, helping to support this really cutting-edge research and technology that happens here. It's like nothing else, nothing else in the whole country-- in fact, I'm going to say the whole world-- in terms of what happens in this research facility. 

So I'm here today with-- this program is part of our Every Second Matters distracted driving educational campaign, where you know every second matters. We raise awareness about the importance of road safety and encourage others to set examples about really safe driving habits.

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A man stands beside her. Text, Raul Arbelaez. Vice President, VRC, I.I.H.S.

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So with me today for the next hour is Raul Arbelaez. He's Vice President of IIHS, and he runs this research facility. It's state-of-the-art. We're so thrilled to be here. And Raul, thank you for hosting us.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, thank you for coming today. Glad to have you.

JOAN WOODWARD: Yeah. So first of all, we're in your lobby of this beautiful facility. Again, it's about an hour and a half south of Washington, D.C.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That's right.

JOAN WOODWARD: In Central Virginia. You have-- how many acres are here?

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The facility is composed of several buildings in a clearing surrounded by trees. There is a long building with a domed ceiling and paved floor, with open sides. Nearby is a series of connected office and industrial buildings in a row, solar panels, and a parking lot. 

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RAUL ARBELAEZ: We're sitting on about 135 acres. We're in, as you mentioned, beautiful Central Virginia at-- in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This facility is one that-- supported by the insurance industry. We built our crash-test facility, the first facility that the institute has and the only where we can conduct crash tests, crash avoidance tests, on our track. And of course, we have office space. And we're sitting right here in our lobby. And visitors that come into our facility-- hopefully, many of our member companies have come through here. As they come into our lobby, they would be standing right here. 

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One wall in the lobby has a sign that reads, Auto insurers and associations that fund our life-saving work, with roughly a hundred plaques on it. Prominent large plaques are Geico, (registered trademark), Progressive, (registered trademark), State Farm, (registered trademark), Allstate, Nationwide, (registered trademark), Liberty Mutual, (registered trademark), Farmers Insurance, Travelers, and U.S.A.A., (registered trademark). 

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And one of the first things you see when you come in is our member supporter wall that shows all of the insurance companies that support the Insurance Institute, Travelers being an important supporter of the institute for a long time. And really, we cannot do this work without the support of the insurance industry. This is truly life-saving work that for years has advanced safety of vehicles in the U.S. and certainly has had a footprint and an effect on vehicle safety around the world, the work that we do here. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Absolutely. What year was this established? And what are we standing next to? This is an antique car, right?

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She gestures to the car behind her. The front engine is twisted in a wreck with a gray car that hits it at an angle. The gray car's hood and front is also twisted. 

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What year did you start this operation?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, so this facility was opened in the early '90s with the first crash test program, our frontal crashes, starting off in 1995. But for our-- the institute's 50th anniversary, which the institute was founded in 1959-- again, support from the insurance companies. For our 50th anniversary, we conducted this crash test showing how far safety has come in vehicles over the years. And so we crashed a 50-year-old vehicle, the 1959 Bel Air, into a 2009 Chevy Malibu to show, again, how far vehicle structures and airbags and seat belts have really improved safety. 

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The Bel Air suffers far more damage in the head-on collision. The hood crumples, the windshield shatters, and the test dummy is crumpled as the front seat pushes it against the ceiling. The Chevy Malibu suffers a twisted and bent hood and front section, but the windshield and interior remain intact. 

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JOAN WOODWARD: So when people say something like "They don't make them like they used to," that's not-- right? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Right. And-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: And you're like-- scratch your head.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Right. Some people say that, thinking that-- "don't build them like they used to." The old vehicles were better. But in terms of safety, it's a good thing. We have vehicles that are much safer today. And we have better structures, seat belts, airbags and all this collision avoidance technology that will help prevent crashes in the first place. And so it is a good thing that they don't build them like they used to.

JOAN WOODWARD: So, we're going to go in the crash test site in a few minutes. And I want to just talk to you about what's going to happen. So, what are we looking at when you say the front crash, the T-bone, the overlays? Let's talk about what we're going to see.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. So today we will be seeing a front crash of a Toyota Crown, a Toyota Crown. It is going to be a front small overlap crash. It is one of the crashes that we conduct. When we started these consumer information programs, we started them in 1995, and we started with a front moderate overlap crash.

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Slide, Original moderate overlap front. A car crashes into a barrier. The hood and engine section crumple and the driver door hangs open. An airbag deploys from the steering wheel. Text, 1995. 

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And that was different from what the federal government had been doing since the '70s in that this moderate overlap crash has about 40% of its front-end width colliding with a barrier that represents another vehicle in a head-on collision. We started that in 1995. We saw huge improvements in vehicle structure and airbags throughout that time. 

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A side crash photo shows one car rammed into another on the driver’s side. It breaks through the door and frame and crumples the ceiling of the car. Text, Original side, 2003. 

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And by the time we hit the early 2000s, we wanted to address another important crash mode, which is side crashes. And they make up about a quarter of serious injuries and fatalities. And so it made sense to take on that crash mode. We've made a lot of progress in that crash mode over the years. And then after that, in 2004 we added a rear impact evaluation program to look at whiplash injuries. 

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A test dummy sits in a seat with the headrest angled at the back of its neck. Text, Head restraints, 2004. 

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And then we added eventually a roof strength program to look at how well vehicles hold up in a rollover crash. 

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A machine prepares to smash onto the roof of a red truck. Text, Roof strength, 2009. 

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And then in the years after that, we have added a small overlap crash, which is what we are going to see today, which is a smaller overlap on the front of the vehicle with the barrier. 

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A car crashes into a barrier. The front crumples, the driver door buckles, and the front tire is pushed back into the car. Airbags deploy inside. Text, Small overlap front driver-side. 2012. A blue car smashes into a barrier. The front passenger side of the car crumples and airbags deploy inside. Text, Small overlap front passenger-side. 2017. 

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We added a driver's side small overlap and then passenger small overlap. And then we've gone further. We've circled back to the original frontal test. And last year, we added a rear occupant to that seating position. 

JOAN WOODWARD: All right. So, let's talk about-- you mentioned this is a Toyota Crown. So that's a new model, right? So you're testing-- how many models do you test on average in a year, for example?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So in a year, we are testing in our crash test facility about 70 to 85 vehicles per year. That's about one to two per week. We conduct additional testing on our sled, which is a non-destructive way of evaluating things like vehicle seats and other components of the vehicle. We have our outdoor test track where we conduct many more tests like collision avoidance tests, our headlight test to make sure that the headlights allow a driver to see far enough at night. And so we're always busy conducting tests year round here.

JOAN WOODWARD: You mentioned headlights. I mean, headlights have been around forever, right?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: So that's top of mind. What are some of the other things that you really test for? I mean, I know some of the cars now, when you turn the steering wheel, the lights will turn as well.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: So there's all sorts of new--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. There are many different technologies, including, well, headlights that can see further down the road, adaptive beam headlights that can turn slightly around corners to allow a driver to see a little bit further around those radius curves. There are new technologies that will probably be coming into the U.S. that are already available overseas in Europe, probably-- my guess is in the next few years-- that will work even better.

But other collision avoidance technologies that we look at are automatic emergency braking systems, ones that work not only during the day but also at night, ones that can detect pedestrians and hopefully eventually cyclists and ideally prevent those crashes or make sure that the vehicles are slowing down in the event of one of those collisions. And yeah, so we're looking at all of these new technologies.

JOAN WOODWARD: Yeah. I mean, one of our pillars of our Every Second Matters campaign is really trying to reduce fatalities. And during the pandemic, we thought because miles driven was down, but fatalities were up. And people were just scratching their heads, because, I mean, distracted driving is such a-- it's an epidemic, right? And how are you thinking about that when you test some of these?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. So in evaluating vehicles here, we can try to push things further in terms of how safe a vehicle is for the occupants in the vehicle and even some of the occupants outside of the vehicle, how well those technologies can help detect and prevent some of those crashes. But if-- speeding is still a problem.

We still have a huge problem in this country with unbelted drivers. They only make up 10% of the fatal population. I'm sorry, 90% of people buckle up, but they make up about half of fatalities, unbelted population. So we have a lot of things that we need to work on-- impairment, speed, belt usage. And so hopefully we can knock down that trend and ideally bring those fatalities down to zero. It's going to take a while, but it's a worthwhile effort.

JOAN WOODWARD: Changing social norms-- what's acceptable these days, right? Twenty, 30 years ago, they came up with a designated driver. Who's your DD tonight? Remember you would ask somebody, who's your DD tonight? And so now we need to figure out who's the DD for distraction, right? And making it unacceptable to be distracted while you're driving.

I want to just pivot just a little bit because you mentioned Europe. And Europe is testing. So we have a lot of followers and visitors from Canada to our webinars every week, so we'll have some Canadian folks join us today. Is IIHS also-- is Canadian? How does that work? Is it North America-based?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So for years, our member companies that supported the institute were exclusively U.S. insurers. We now have some Canadian member companies. But the vehicles that we evaluate, a lot of the vehicles sold in the U.S. are North American designs that also carry over into Canada. So some of the crash testing and headlight and crash avoidance features that we evaluate, those technologies are also being carried over into Canada. They're in many cases identical vehicles.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, good, good. So let's go back to the crash test and what we're thinking about today with regard to what should our viewers really take away from this? I know there's a lot of video footage on your website that they could go back and look. Are most models rated by you? Because everyone wants that Top Safety Pick. And I'm sure the-- what the manufacturers-- are they going to be here today looking at how their car performs? Is it an SUV? Is it a car? What is it?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So it's a sedan. We will be testing the Toyota Crown. There are representatives from Toyota here today, some engineers and technicians. They want to make sure that we are setting up the test according to our protocol. And if there are any questions, we can lean on them to sort some of that out.

For the crash today, certainly, its speed is at 40 miles per hour. And oftentimes, people say, well, I drive down the highway at 70 or 75 miles per hour. Why don't you crash the vehicles at that higher speed? The speed that we picked for today's crash is actually the highest frontal crash test speed of any consumer information or regulatory test around the world. That's about the max that anybody does.

The reason for that is it's kind of a sweet spot to where you get a lot of representation of what's going on in the real world, while at the same time not challenging the vehicles or pushing things so far that you're really creating some unintended consequences for occupants in the vehicle in lower-speeds crashes. And we could talk about that for probably a couple of hours and the research that goes into that. But it's a balancing act, right? You want to try to do the most good while also balancing fuel economy and handling of the vehicle and overall safety in lower-speed crashes.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, wonderful. How do you interact with the federal government? Because we know the National Governors Association and NTSA is a big part of safety. How is that? And does the federal government fund you? I mean, is it just insurance companies? And how does the federal government view what you're doing here, good or bad? Do they test? You said governments are testing around the world, too.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. So since 1959, our funding has come exclusively from auto insurers. We get no federal funding. The highway safety community doing this type of research is fairly small around the world. We have very good relationships with all of them, including the researchers at auto manufacturers, in the federal government in the U.S. Whenever there's new regulation being proposed, we do comment on it. We exchange our research with them, and-- so there is an enormous amount of information exchange, whether in public forums like conferences or even some meetings with these different organizations.

JOAN WOODWARD: And you have the benefit, too, of claims data, insurance claims data, being shared with you, so you can benefit from what we learn. Clearly, we learn a lot by our claims data, slicing and dicing and looking at every number and metrics that we can.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That's right. We not only look at crash data. Our sister organization, the Highway Loss Data Institute, aggregates a bunch of insurance loss data. And they can see how different technologies and vehicles are performing in the real world. I think we're getting close to when we need to go back for our crash test.

JOAN WOODWARD: So we created a terrific video, a five- or six-minute video for you all to watch while we're going to walk over there.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yup.

JOAN WOODWARD: And we're going to run. And we'll see you on the other side of our video. So thank you again, Raul, for hosting us.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We'll see them in the crash room.

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Two women walk into a large white room. Pictures and models of crash dummies line one wall. 

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GINNY BRZEZINSKI: So Jessica, tell me where we're going. 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: So we're headed back to our dummy lab so we can talk about some of the tools we use in our crash testing.

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Text, Ginny Brzezinski, Travelers Institute, Travelers. Jessica Jermakian, Vice President Vehicle Research, I.I.H.S. -- They stand in a gray room in front of four test dummies sitting on metal chairs. Two of the dummies are male and one is a female with a toddler beside her. 

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GINNY BRZEZINSKI: We want to give our viewers a little bit of insight into some of our friends around here, all the crash test dummies, which is a little bit of a misnomer, since they're now pretty smart. Tell us a little bit about the dummies.

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: When we talk about "a crash test dummy," we think about it just being one dummy that we put in crashes. But we actually have a whole family of dummies to represent different size occupants, from a six-month-old all the way up to a 95th percentile male. 

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A line of dummies of all sizes in metal seats. Dummies ride in cars as they crash at different angles. They run into airbags and are restrained by seat belts as they do crash tests. From the exterior, a test vehicle crashes into cars with dummies inside from different angles. 

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And we also have dummies for frontal crashes, side crashes, rear crashes. So you'd use different dummies depending on which direction the forces are coming from. 

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: And after a crash test, what kind of information are you pulling from the dummies? 

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Staff remove a dummy from a vehicle with a small crane attached to its head. One staff holds up its legs. They check sensors in the back of the dummy's head. 

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JESSICA JERMAKIAN: The dummies are equipped with sensors. And depending on the crash mode, we're collecting different types of information that give us information to help predict injuries that we might see in the field. 

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An outdoors crash. One vehicle is at an angle on a barrier, its hood crashed into the hood of another car at a right angle. 

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And so this is a frontal crash test dummy. And for our frontal test, we're collecting information like accelerations in the head, in the chest and also in the foot. We are collecting forces that are in the neck and in the lower extremities. 

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She touches the parts of the model that they inspect. The model has several wires within it and a spring-like metal neck. 

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We're also collecting deflection data or how much the body deforms in the chest and in the knee. 

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: And I noticed in some of the videos I watched that some of their heads are painted. What kind of information does that give you after they go through a test?

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One dummy's face is painted half blue, half pink, and red on the back. As it hits an airbag, the paint smears off on contact. 

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JESSICA JERMAKIAN: That helps us understand where the dummy has impacted. We also painted the knees in a frontal test to see if there is interaction between the knees and the front seat back. The head grease paint, we can see interactions with the airbag or any hard points on the vehicle. 

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Dummy heads and knees leave paint on airbags in frontal and side crash tests. 

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GINNY BRZEZINSKI: How much do these dummies cost to put together and then to maintain? 

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A technician works on wires in a dummy's chest. 

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JESSICA JERMAKIAN: The dummies we use, like this one, cost about $250,000 to buy new fully equipped with the sensors we need for our testing. And then, of course, there's maintenance. The newest generation of dummies, the THOR dummies, are quite a bit more expensive, going up to about $1 million per dummy. 

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Wow. 

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The dummy has a metal rib cage and many wires. 

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How much have they changed since we started using crash test dummies in crashes? I mean, were the original ones literally just almost dolls with-- or mannequins-- without any sensors? 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: The first crash test dummy was back in the late '40s.

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A dummy sits in an airplane seat. 

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That was originally designed for military use, for the Air Force, looking at ejection seats. 

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An old car full of dummies crashes into a building outdoors with onlookers standing by. 

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Then in the course of their development of dummies, they recognized its use in motor vehicle crashes. 

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Many test crashes are conducted with dummies outdoors in old cars. The dummies fling about the cars in the crashes. Some fall out.

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And the auto industry in the early '70s used the information that we had from those early dummies and developed what we know as the modern crash test dummy, the Hybrid I in the early '70s and the Hybrid III dummy, which is the one that we still use in a lot of testing today in the mid '70s. 

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: So the GAO had called on NTSA to address some of the current limitations with the crash test dummies. Is there anything in the future for adding different types of dummies for those perceived gaps?

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: There's been a lot of media attention, particularly around the difference in risk between men and women in crashes, and that NTSA isn't doing a lot of testing with female crash test dummies. Here at IIHS, we use a combination of male and female dummies.

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A short female dummy sits in a car during a side crash test. It is flung about violently in the crash. 

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We began testing back in 2003 with a small female dummy in our side impact test. 

We have small female dummies in the front and rear seat of that test. And we use that dummy, because at the time, we knew that smaller occupants were at particular risk in side-impact crashes. And we wanted to make sure that some of the protection devices, like the head-protecting airbag, was getting low enough to be able to protect smaller occupants that may be more likely to hit their head on an intruding vehicle.

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In another test, side airbags inflate and protect the heads of the female dummies. 

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GINNY BRZEZINSKI: From a crash standpoint, how do you see in these dummies-- the one that's in the driver's side versus the one that's in the rear seat, what differences do you see? 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: One of the things that we've seen in our research is that when we look at the field data, while we've made so many improvements to the front seat of vehicles, the rear seat really hasn't kept pace. And one of the reasons for that is that here in the United States, there were no frontal crash tests that were evaluating dynamic performance of the restraint systems in the rear seat. So last year, we updated our moderate overlap test to include a rear-seated occupant.

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff sets dummies in the front and back of a car and smears blue paint on their faces. The car crashes into a barrier. Airbags inflate and the dummies fling forward, restrained by seat belts. 

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The dummy we're using back there is the small female dummy, but she's also about the size of an average 12- or 13-year-old. So she is a good representation of the size of occupant that we might expect to see in the rear seat. And so when we're designing our crash tests, we pick ways to evaluate the tests that we think will incentivize improvements that will have real-world benefits. 

[SMASHING SOUND] 

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The car smashes into the barrier and bounces back, its front crumpled. The back seat dummy's head leans forward and, when it straightens, comes up on the outside of the airbag. 

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GINNY BRZEZINSKI: On the passenger side in the back, the head came between the airbag curtain and the window. Is the response to then adjust for that scenario? 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: The curtain is supposed to protect the dummy's head and prevent it from going outside the vehicle. And what we're seeing in some of those tests is that the dummy moves forward in the crash and then rebounds back behind the curtain airbag. Now we are including that in our ratings criteria, but the vehicle will get a downgrade for that kind of performance.

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: So Jessica, in spite of everything we know, there still are people who are not wearing seat belts.

(DESCRIPTION)
Drivers with their faces blurred wear no seat belts. 

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JESSICA JERMAKIAN: It's true. In the United States, the belt use rate is about 90%. But when we look at the fatality data, we see that nearly half of fatally injured occupants are not buckling up. And so this past year, we introduced a new rating system where we are evaluating vehicles on how persistent their seat belt reminder systems are. 

(DESCRIPTION)
A test driver uses a sensor hooked up to the dash as he drives with no seat belt on. 

(SPEECH)
And so what we're looking for is an audible tone for a longer period of time. And we're also looking for systems that give the driver information about whether rear seat occupants are buckled and whether their buckle status changes during the drive.

[REMINDER CHIMING]

(DESCRIPTION)
A rear test rider with his face blurred out unbuckles. A light on the dash comes on.

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What we see in our Seat Belt Reminder Ratings program is the automakers are responding quickly. In many cases, all it requires is a software change. But we're also seeing more automakers put those rear belt reminders in.

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Jessica, thank you so much for giving us the 101 on crash test dummies. 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: You're welcome. I'm so glad you're here. But crash test dummies are only one part of what we do here. Another big part of our program is crash avoidance testing, and we do a lot of that under our covered test track. So I'd like to take you there.

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Let's go.

(DESCRIPTION)
They walk into the domed covered section of the facility. 

(SPEECH)
Wow, this is amazing, Jessica. This is the covered test track. How big is this? 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: Yeah, so our covered track under the cover is about 5 acres. The covered portion is held up by these 14 piers. And each one of these piers is about a million pounds of concrete and steel rebar.

(DESCRIPTION)
A car drives past the massive piers that anchor the sides of the dome. 

(SPEECH)
GINNY BRZEZINSKI: So this enables you to test in any condition.  

(DESCRIPTION)

A car lurches to a stop as a child dummy rides a skateboard across a crosswalk.

(SPEECH)
JESSICA JERMAKIAN: We built this covered track so that we would stop losing test days to poor weather when we were out on our outdoor track. 

(DESCRIPTION)
A car halts just before hitting a barrier. 

(SPEECH)
GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Tell us how this is used. 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: So, we use this space for crash avoidance testing, things like our pedestrian A/B tests. We have two pedestrian targets behind us, the child and adult pedestrian, and we test vehicles for how well their automatic emergency braking systems work in braking for pedestrians. 

(DESCRIPTION)
A car's dashboard lights up as it approaches a child dummy that walks out into the street. It brakes before it hits the child. Footage of people crossing streets outside of crosswalks. 

(SPEECH)

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: In 2021, there were 7,485 pedestrians killed in vehicle crashes. So how is the data that you're picking up from this testing going to help reduce that number?

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: It has been a large uptick in pedestrian deaths. And we know that many of those pedestrian deaths are happening at night.

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff prepares a dummy under the dome cover at night. 

(SPEECH)
And so starting last year, we began testing in nighttime conditions. And unsurprisingly, the systems don't work as well when they're detecting pedestrians in unlit conditions. 

(DESCRIPTION)
A car hits the dummy as it drives in the dark with headlights on. 

(SPEECH)
But automakers are looking to improve those systems. They're doing things like improving the cameras so that they're better at detecting pedestrians in low light conditions. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Another car stops just before hitting a dummy in the dark with headlights on. 

(SPEECH)
GINNY BRZEZINSKI: And tell me about this car behind us that's covered by something. 

(DESCRIPTION)
A car has a fabric cover detailed like a car exterior. 

(SPEECH)
JESSICA JERMAKIAN: This 3D soft target is like a puzzle. It's made up of a lot of different pieces. And if a vehicle runs into it because the automatic emergency braking system doesn't work, it takes our crew 15 to 20 minutes to reassemble it back into this condition where it looks like a vehicle. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Beneath the fabric cover is a hollow frame set up on wheels. A car crashes into it and it falls apart. Staff rebuild it and put the fabric cover back over it. 

(SPEECH)
GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Jessica, this has been great. Thank you so much for all of this information. Now I know a big part of what IIHS does is that you get information to potential car shoppers, to consumers, to anybody who owns a car about the safety of that vehicle. And one of the ways you do that is, in addition to gathering the data, you take a lot of pictures, before and after, in what seems to be a pretty high-end studio. And so would you mind showing me that now? 

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: Sounds great. Let's go, and I'll show you.

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff drives a crashed car into a bright white studio on a forklift. One side of the car is smashed. 

(SPEECH)
GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Right now, we're in what seems like a Hollywood studio almost. And tell me, what happens here? 

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff roll a laptop stand and camera over to the car. They adjust dials and knobs on an instrument panel. The women stand in front of another crashed car in the studio. 

(SPEECH)
JESSICA JERMAKIAN: Yeah, so this is our photo studio. We take pictures of the vehicles before and after a crash. So when a vehicle first comes into the Vehicle Research Center, it gets beauty shots taken here. And then after the crash, we pull the vehicles in for post-crash photos as well. We use those photos for both our researchers, our engineers and also for our website and our communications materials. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff take photos of the damage to the cars, then open the doors and take photos of the dummies' positions and damage. 

(SPEECH)
GINNY BRZEZINSKI: So if I'm looking for my next car, I can go on the IIHS website. And I can see from these high-quality photographs how the car did in different test situations.  

(DESCRIPTION)
A screenshot of the website lists multiple stats for a 2023 Rivian R1S, the Top Safety Pick for 2023.

(SPEECH)
JESSICA JERMAKIAN: Yup, on our website at IIHS.org, you can look at the vehicle ratings. And within the vehicle ratings, you can look in as much detail as you want about showing before and after pictures and even videos in some cases of our tests, many of those videos taken in our crash hall, where we have a very sophisticated setup that is really the best of its kind. 

(DESCRIPTION)
We scroll down the webpage and reach photos and videos of the car before, during and after a test crash. Staff set up video equipment in and out of the car and film it as it crashes into a barrier. The front crumples and the car bounces back as airbags deploy. 

(SPEECH)

[SMASHING]

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Jessica, thank you so much. This has all been so informative.

JESSICA JERMAKIAN: I'm so glad you could come.

GINNY BRZEZINSKI: Great. And now we're going back to Joan at the crash hall.

(DESCRIPTION)
They stand on a balcony overlooking the crash hall below. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: All right, here we are. Raul, thank you for hosting me again in this crash test exhibit hall. It's amazing. The lights are just-- it's like a movie set. I feel like I'm on a movie set. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: The lighting system that we use for our crash tests, because we have high-speed cameras, it was designed by a Hollywood lighting expert, yes.

JOAN WOODWARD: Hollywood in Central Virginia.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. Well, the expertise came to us and custom designed our lighting system.

(DESCRIPTION)
A series of bright rectangular lights hang from the ceiling around the border of the room. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Amazing. So I wish you all were with me today. But being on the webinar, we wanted to bring you as live of an experience as we could. So in a few minutes, we're going to watch a live crash test. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That's right.

JOAN WOODWARD: I want to talk to you about what we're going to see. So what are we actually seeing? I see a-- there's a line on-- where the car is going to come through. And it's in this little garage-- not such a little garage.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Right. 

JOAN WOODWARD: So when it actually hits the barrier, tell us what you're looking for. What should we be looking for? 

(DESCRIPTION)
The hall has a central rectangular area cordoned off by a line of barriers and bordered above by the rectangular lights. There is a gap on the near wall and a black line on the floor that runs to a barrier set up in the middle of the area. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, so this crash hall is where all of our crash tests occurs. And it is one that we developed so we can conduct crash testing year-round, rain or shine, day or night. And the vehicle will come into this crash hall. It will travel through about a 600-foot-long runway, covered tunnel. It is currently sitting at the end of a temperature-controlled shed.

(DESCRIPTION)
Many people stand around a black car as staff work on dummies inside and test the car's lights and systems. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Why temperature-controlled? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We always keep it between 62 and 70-- 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit, primarily for our dummy calibration. Those dummies are designed--

JOAN WOODWARD: They’re not so dumb. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: They're not so dumb, yeah. Yeah, they're meant to operate in a very tight temperature and humidity window. And so we keep it in that temperature-controlled shed up until the very last moment. That garage door that you see there in the shed will open up, and the propulsion system will pull the vehicle into the crash hall. We don't want to accelerate it too quickly, because the dummy has-- we've spent a lot of time precisely positioning the dummy.

And we want to know that at the beginning of the crash, that dummy is in the correct position. And so it will be passing underneath this observation platform in a few minutes at 40 miles per hour, hit the barrier and then that's our crash. The whole thing, beginning to end, is over in about two-tenths of a second.

JOAN WOODWARD: Two-tenths of a second?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's a--

JOAN WOODWARD: And how many weeks do you spend preparing for it?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So when that vehicle arrived, from the time we get photos, the vehicle prepared, fluids drained, measurements taken, instrumentation added, through today, it could take about a week to two weeks to get that vehicle fully ready.

JOAN WOODWARD: And how many do you crash a week, for example, on average?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We're on average about one to two per week. And of course, that doesn't include other testing going on inside of our lab and then outside on our test track.

JOAN WOODWARD: And what are we looking for today? Are we looking to see-- not just the dummy. We've already talked a bit about that in the video. But what else are you looking for?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So in our crash tests, we have sensors within the dummy that will tell us about injury potential for that occupant. We will also, after the crash, be looking at the vehicle structure. We take pre-crash measurements and post-crash measurements down to the nearest millimeter. And we want to see how much that has intruded in towards the occupant. We want to make sure that the safety cage is intact.

And so we put all of that together, along with how well the occupant motion was controlled during the crash. And that gives us our overall rating. In this crash, as with every crash, we want to see a good rating. We rate vehicles as good, acceptable, marginal or poor, and the different injury and structural assessments go into that rating. And then further, as we mentioned earlier, for that Top Safety Pick, you want to be good in all of the crash tests and the crash avoidance tests to get that Top Safety Pick award.

JOAN WOODWARD: So this being a new model, you're doing the small overlap, I think you said, today? So maybe half of the front bumper we should be looking for to be--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's 25% of the vehicle's front-end width.

(DESCRIPTION)
A photo of the moderate overlap crash on the left and the small overlap crash on the right. The moderate reaches almost the middle of the car on the driver's side, and the small reaches halfway to the middle. 

(SPEECH)
And so for many years, our moderate overlap crash did involve some of-- a wider distribution of that front end, which included some of the engine compartment and that front longitudinal structure. This test we added in 2012 to really assess some of what we were seeing in real-world crashes, where some of that outer structure wasn't being protected as well. And so that's what we want to see in this crash, is how well can the vehicle structure hold up in that small overlap configuration/ 

JOAN WOODWARD: So for each model, do you do a head-on collision, a small overlap-- ooh, the garage is going up. Very dramatic.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, the garage door's coming up. That means that our technicians and engineers getting the final checklist ready have come up the runway. And they'll be joining us up on this observation platform in a few minutes and hopefully charging the propulsion system to get ready for the crash.

(DESCRIPTION)
The large garage door opens. The course runs under the observation balcony that they stand on. Staff leave the black car in the garage and file out. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: OK, so back to my question. So in a particular model, how many crashes do you do? Do you do the head-on, the T-bone, the small overlay, the large overlay or overlap? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, so we have--

JOAN WOODWARD: --I'm sure I’m using the wrong words.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. So it's a moderate overlap frontal crash. We have small overlap on the driver's side and the passenger side. And again, the moderate overlap crash we updated just last year to include a rear occupant, because one of the things we found is that over the years, safety, whether it's seat belts, structure and airbags, have gotten better for the driver's seat position, those same technology improvements have not really been realized in the rear seat position.

So that's what we're evaluating there. So to answer your question, before we evaluate a vehicle and consider it for Top Safety Pick, we have to conduct all of those crash tests, look at all of that data, as well as look at some of the crash avoidance test data. That's right.

JOAN WOODWARD: So there's multiple crashes for each model. This today--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Is--

JOAN WOODWARD: Is not going to be-- OK.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Is one of many. And one of the things that we actually do is for some vehicle models, for example, our side crash tests or some of the others that we've conducted for many years, and there's a history of vehicles performing well, we accept verification data from the auto industry. And we will review that data, their data and their video. And that will allow us to put more ratings out without actually having to conduct the test here.

JOAN WOODWARD: I see. OK.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We audit some of those test results just to keep them honest. We've never conducted an audit test and had different results from what the manufacturer gives us. And so that allows us to rate a greater number of vehicles with our same budget and, more importantly, limited lab time.

JOAN WOODWARD: Yup. Right. So are you sometimes invited in? Some of your researchers-- you're a head engineer here. Are you ever invited into a manufacturer's test site to see what they do?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So we have occasionally toured some of the automakers' test labs. Primarily, it's information exchange so we can learn from them, because we all do things a little bit differently, and we can always learn from one another.

JOAN WOODWARD: But do most manufacturers have something this overwhelming?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Most auto manufacturers have their own crash labs. Some are not quite this big. Some actually can fit several of these crash halls inside of their crash test facility.

JOAN WOODWARD: Oh, wow.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So they're of varying size. But the truth is, you don't need a huge amount of space to conduct basic crash tests.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: And by the time they get here, most auto manufacturers know how their model will perform. They've done many computer simulations before they even start building the vehicle. And then once they have a pre-production model, they go ahead and do their own crash tests, because they don't want to be surprised by the time they get here.

JOAN WOODWARD: Right. They don't want to learn it from you first, right?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That's right, yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: So I want to talk about the propulsion cable. And I mean, I feel-- I was on an aircraft carrier once when I worked on Capitol Hill.

CREW: Starting hydraulics.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, they're starting. What are they doing?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Well, actually, they're talking about exactly what you just brought up, which is our propulsion system, which is-- some labs have an electric motor that they can fire up right away and conduct the test. We have a stored energy system which what--

CREW: System is now charging.

(DESCRIPTION)
A series of large industrial tanks are connected through a large pipe and mechanical structure. It leads to a cable on a round mechanism under the course track. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yup. So what you're hearing there is a warning that our propulsion system is now charging. It uses a stored energy system. We compress nitrogen against some accumulators. That compressed nitrogen then can be used to drive hydraulic fluid through a motor. It pulls the cables through, and then we slowly get that vehicle up to our crash speed right before impact, which for this test today will be 40 miles per hour. 

The reason we want to slowly accelerate that vehicle is, again, so we don't move the vehicle too much. But that's what we're hearing now. That's what is happening. When we have our propulsion system charging, we don't want anyone on the crash hall floor. That's why all of our engineers and technicians, they've all joined us on the observation platform. It will take about 4 minutes to fully charge the system.

Once we get fully charged, it will give us a final countdown. And then the-- you'll hit the Go button. And about 14 seconds later, we'll have a collision. Before that happens, we have-- these light banks will turn on. When those lights are on, we are drawing about 750,000 watts of power.

JOAN WOODWARD: Wow. And where do you get your power from? You have solar here at all, or?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So this facility, we-- for years and years, we just had grid power. But we've supplemented that some years ago by adding some solar panels. And it covers about two-thirds of our power, so we can-- and during the day, we're getting-- when the sun is shining, almost exclusively our power is coming from the sun. And we're actually dumping power back into the grid. So everything you're seeing right now is-- it's a solar-powered crash test facility.

JOAN WOODWARD: Let's talk more about green, because I think today's test, we have a battery car, a car that's electric, right?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's a hybrid, yup.

JOAN WOODWARD: So is there a different crash test when you have a huge battery in a car? How do you do that?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. So with any vehicle, whether it's a gasoline-- a combustion engine vehicle-- or an electric vehicle, there are safety precautions we take into place. Because we have an indoor facility, we do not want any thermal event. We'll call it that. And so what we do is for a gasoline-powered vehicle, we will drain the fuel, replace that fuel with another mineral spirit of the same density so that those fluids are still in there and represent some risk. If there is a fuel leak, we want to capture that.

We actually dye that fluid purple so that we can see it leaking. Yup. For an electric vehicle, a full electric vehicle, we will actually reduce the state of charge of that battery to about 12%. We add additional temperature sensors around the battery so that if there is a short or some damage to the battery that causes the temperature to increase, we can monitor that and get the vehicle outside right away. And we also have some sensors that will tell us whether or not there's a shock hazard. The good news is we have never seen that in an electric vehicle.

JOAN WOODWARD: And we're not going to see that today, right?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Fingers crossed.

JOAN WOODWARD: If we do, we're going to be out of here.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, and the truth is, is anything can happen in crash testing. Our staff is highly trained. We drill for this type of thing. We will-- we will quietly exit--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JOAN WOODWARD: You let me know.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: --and continue our interview.

JOAN WOODWARD: I'll follow you.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: But again, fingers crossed. We've never seen that in a crash. And again, the reason we don't see that is auto manufacturers have prepared for this type of crash test for years and-- in the development of vehicles. And so we've not seen any of those issues here. Gasoline engine fires and battery electric vehicle fires do occur in the real world. A lot of what we've seen is some of those tend to happen in very severe crashes to where certainly, if we conducted a test here at a much higher speed, we may see that.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, got it. And they're getting ready, right? Almost-- we're almost time, yeah?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, we're getting close. We're almost done with the charging of our propulsion system.

(DESCRIPTION)
The lights go dark in the facility. The large rectangular lights flanking the crash course blaze on. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Is it similar to being catapulted off of an aircraft carrier or not? Is it similar technology? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's close. It pulls the vehicle, again, gently up until impact, and then it releases from the system. So we have our crash lights on now.

JOAN WOODWARD: Great, nice and bright.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Within a few minutes, we'll be-- once we get the thumbs up, we'll-- we ready to go? So our control tower operator's doing the final checks.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, perfect.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Our lights are on.

JOAN WOODWARD: Great.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: The data acquisition system for the dummies has been armed.

JOAN WOODWARD: And where do they do that?

CREW: Charging is complete. Testing will commence in 3, 2, 1.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: All right, looks like we're about to go. Here we go. Let's take a look at this crash.

(DESCRIPTION)
The cable pulls the black car down a tunnel towards the course. It starts off slow and then speeds up near the end. The car enters the facility and runs under the balcony, then smashes into the barrier. The front driver-side wheel breaks off and hangs loose as the front left of the car hood is smashed. The windows remain intact, and airbags deploy throughout the vehicle. It bounces to the side off the barrier. The hood is bent up and the fender is torn off. 

[SMASHING SOUND]

(SPEECH) 
JOAN WOODWARD: That was not-- I know what I was expecting. That was way louder and dramatic than I was ever expecting. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That one was actually pretty loud.

JOAN WOODWARD: It was.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It was loud.

JOAN WOODWARD: Wow. It just breaks-- I'm such a car person. It breaks my heart to see anything destroyed like that. So I don't know if folks can see. I'm going to step on the side.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff approach the car. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: You can see our recovery team in there. What are they doing right now? Just-- 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, so our test team is coming down now, one, to clear up some of the debris after the crash. That orange cart that's being wheeled in there towards the rear of the vehicle, that is some of our test team from our electronics lab that is-- they're going to be putting on some safety material, some rubber boots, gloves and a helmet, to test whether or not the vehicle has passed the electrical isolation test, which means there's no shock hazard. That means--

JOAN WOODWARD: So that's like No. 1 thing--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: No. 1 thing is--

JOAN WOODWARD: --test for shock--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Everything here, the top priority is safety, right?

(DESCRIPTION)
Staff roll the electrical shock test cart up to the car. Others sweep up debris. The bright rectangular lights turn off and the normal facility lights come back on. 

(SPEECH)
Protecting our staff and our facility. If everything is fine there, then our staff can start touching the vehicle and start accessing the vehicle, getting the data and the video off the vehicle. And then at that point, we will be invited to come on down. 

JOAN WOODWARD: We'll bring you down there and check it out. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. And so this protocol that's being followed here for checking the safety, this is something that we've worked with other auto manufacturers and other labs around the world to develop best practices. Ten years ago, this didn't even exist. Nobody really knew what any of us should be doing. And so we've worked with other labs to establish best practices. Again, thankfully, we've never had an issue. It looks like he's taking off the safety equipment, and so he's probably going to give us the thumbs-up. 

JOAN WOODWARD: All right, so the battery is intact, and there's no shock.

(DESCRIPTION)
The car slams into the barrier in slow motion. The driver's side front corner crumples, buckling the hood and turning the front wheel sideways off its axel. The wheel rim flies off. The car bounces away. The front corner of the car is shredded and pieces fly away. The fender falls off and pieces drag on the ground. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, there's no-- the electrical isolation passed. What's supposed to happen immediately after a crash is these high-voltage battery systems are supposed to disconnect themselves automatically from the vehicle chassis and the drive train so that there are no shock hazards. Looks like it passed, and now our crew can keep-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: Oh, we're already watching the slow-motion--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yes, actually, right up on the screen, we have playback from one of our high-speed cameras. This is a-- these cameras are taking 500 pictures per second, which is one of the reasons we need those very bright lights. So video like this that is both taken off-board and onboard, inside the vehicle, is what we use to help us put together the video with the data to try to understand exactly what happened at every millisecond throughout the crash and then paint a picture of, if there are injuries, at what part of the crash did that occur? What was the mechanism? And we use that to help us rate the vehicles.

JOAN WOODWARD: Wonderful.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: Wow. That's very dramatic.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: I have a quick question. Why have hubcaps on? What's the point? What's the point of having a hubcap--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So when we conduct a crash test, if the vehicle has hubcaps on steel wheels, we remove them. What you actually saw flying off was the actual rim of the vehicle.

JOAN WOODWARD: Oh, the rim? OK.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Because it's a small overlap crash, those crash forces load through that-- the edge of the bumper and in through the wheel. And that, the front of that wheel, actually just split off. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's one of the reasons we--

CREW: --we'd like to invite you to come take a closer look at the vehicle.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: All right, we're being--

CREW: --watch your step.

JOAN WOODWARD: All right, excellent.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We're being invited to come down and take a closer look at the vehicle.

JOAN WOODWARD: I'm going to do that.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, just walk this way?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We can walk this way, as Aerosmith said.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK.

(DESCRIPTION)
They walk downstairs to join staff at the car. The staff check monitors and inside the trunk. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: So as we step onto the crash hall area, the test crew has cleaned up most of the debris. But it is a crash test, and there is some broken glass, so we just need to be careful there. There might be some slippery spots but should for the most part be safe. We still don't want to touch any of the vehicle, but we can lean in and take a closer look. Why don't we come on over to-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: I'll follow you. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: --the passenger side of the vehicle first.

(DESCRIPTION)
They walk up to the car. Staff stand around it, looking inside and taking pictures. 

(SPEECH)
And so what we have here is we have one of our test engineers here. Part of the post-crash investigation, one of the first things they do are take preliminary notes about what they are observing in terms of contacts between the head and the airbag. And we can see that because we put grease paint on the dummy's face, looking at any other thing-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: You put something on the face. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's basically clown paint.

JOAN WOODWARD: Clown paint?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, yeah, we put it on the face and on the knees. 

JOAN WOODWARD: To see how the impact on the airbag? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, just so we can see where all of these contacts are.

(DESCRIPTION)
They step to the passenger side and look in the windows. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: And it looks like there's paint on the side. The side? OK. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yup, that's the curtain airbag there that we see some of the paint transfer to. Of course, that frontal airbag-- there would have also been contact there. One of the other things we have going on here is for some of these onboard cameras, we have one of our team members from our photography team downloading the video from those cameras. And again, we are going to be able to use that later on to couple the data with the video to get a better idea of what happened during the crash.

JOAN WOODWARD: And how many cameras do we have? How many cameras are taking pictures of--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So on board right now from the passenger side, we have two cameras here. And we have two cameras up in the roof area looking--

JOAN WOODWARD: Looking this way.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Looking forward.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK.

(DESCRIPTION)
Two cameras are attached to the windows on the passenger side. They duck and peer inside the car. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: And in addition to that, we have some onboard lighting that's added inside the vehicle. Again, because these cameras are taking pictures at 500 frames per second, we need a lot of light flooding in there to get good images. Why don't we scoot around to the back of the vehicle? I'll show you some of the other things that we have here. 

(DESCRIPTION)
They walk to the open trunk. He points to various devices and cords attached to the back side of the car. 

(SPEECH)
This is our device that allows us to monitor the battery temperature, right? And so we want to make sure that that temperature is not increasing after the crash. And some of these components allow them to check that electrical isolation that we discussed afterwards. 

JOAN WOODWARD: So it says 76 degrees Fahrenheit.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: What is that? Is that at room temperature?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That is the temperature of the temperature sensors that are placed on the battery. And so what we want to make sure of is that the batteries aren't heating up above-- too much above room temperature. Yeah. So right now, it looks stable. If that was creeping up--

JOAN WOODWARD: But if this was not an electric vehicle, this would not be here.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We would not have that on the vehicle.

(DESCRIPTION)
He gestures to a row of devices that fill the trunk, each with dials, knobs, displays, and cables. A yellow, red, and black sign on the back window reads, Please Do Not Touch Vehicle! 

(SPEECH)
In the back of the vehicle here, we have a lot of hardware. 

JOAN WOODWARD: It's a lot. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's a lot of hardware that's used to power our onboard cameras, data acquisition system that's used to record some of the dummy data. This is some additional data acquisition. But our dummies-- inside of the dummies, we have some data collection, data recording units. And from each of the sensors in the dummy, we are recording data at 10,000 samples per second. So-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: 10,000 per second? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Per second. 

(DESCRIPTION)
She gestures to a device on the back bumper. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Per second. What is this? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So this is a wireless bridge that just allows us-- immediately after the crash, it beams the crash data up to our network. And then we can start processing that data right away. So within 10 minutes, all of that data will have been downloaded and calculations run on it so that we can have a good idea of how the vehicle is going to perform. As we come around the driver's side of the vehicle, we can see that in addition to the front airbag that deployed, the curtain airbag deployed. It covers—

(DESCRIPTION)
She gestures to the curtain airbag that stretches from the front to rear seat along the driver's side. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Is this one airbag? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: This is one airbag. Yup, this is a curtain airbag that deploys from-- yeah, from this roof rail area. They were originally designed to protect occupants in a side crash. But now just about every vehicle deploys them in front crashes to protect occupants against rebound kinematics and movement of the occupant's head outside of the window opening during rebound or in subsequent impacts.

(DESCRIPTION)
He reaches through the window and pokes the airbag. It only gives slightly. 

(SPEECH)
And you can kind of feel here, these airbags stay inflated for a while. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Oh, yeah.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: That's different from the frontal airbags that deflate almost immediately. These side curtain airbags stay inflated.

JOAN WOODWARD: And what smells? I-- it smells-- I know my viewers can't smell. I'm going to smell for you today.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. So some of that smell is from the pyrotechnic devices, the mini explosion that happened to deploy some of these airbags. And that's common for just about any vehicle that has airbags.

(DESCRIPTION)
She looks down at the tire sitting askew among the crumpled front corner of the car. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: OK. And what are we seeing here? 

(DESCRIPTION)
He gestures to a gap between the buckled hood and the tire. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: So up front here, one of the things that we see is unlike our moderate overlap crash, where a lot of the loads are distributed further inboard, and a lot of that goes through the engine compartment, we have-- this is the bumper bar of the vehicle. You see a little bit of loading there. But a lot of the crash forces really come through the outer 25% of the vehicle, push that wheel well back, and load this A pillar, hinge pillar area, leading to the door. 

(DESCRIPTION)
The torn and shredded part of the car is mostly on the outer edge. 

(SPEECH)
When we first started this test, one of the things that we saw was a lot of that structure behind that wheel would collapse and push into the toe pan region. And we're very happy to see that most vehicles today are performing this well in this crash. So the structures are holding up. 

JOAN WOODWARD: So you're happy with what you see?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So far, yes. And once we actually get our measurement technology in there after the dummy comes out to measure the vehicle, we'll be able to get a better view and actual measures of how well that structure held up. So, so far, it's looking really good. 

(DESCRIPTION)
She gestures to the windshield, which has a few cracks where it meets the hood. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: And I notice that-- I mean, the windshield's cracked, obviously, but it's not completely through. At 40 miles an hour, it just-- it held up, the windshield. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, most of these windshields hold up pretty well. It is common to see them cracked. One of the things-- I don't know if you noticed or not-- that we have up on the top of this windshield, just some--

JOAN WOODWARD: Tape. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Some black tape, yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: Black tape? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah.

JOAN WOODWARD: That's not very high tech of you.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, it's not very high tech. It is actually-- we-- one of the things that we want for vehicles that have some of the collision avoidance technology, like automatic emergency braking that helps prevent a crash, is we want to make sure that when we are crashing this vehicle, before our impact, the vehicle's brakes don't engage.

(DESCRIPTION)
She gestures to the tape covering the sensors over the windshield.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: So you're worried that this was going to automatically stop. It was going to work. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: On some vehicles, that could happen. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Has that happened here before? Or you always tape?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It has not. Yeah. So we actually-- part of our communication with auto manufacturers is understanding how their technology works and what we need to do to make sure that for a 40-mile-per-hour crash, we can get there and not have to repeat a crash test.

JOAN WOODWARD: So is this car totaled? Would you consider it totaled if-- this is a brand new 2023, right?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. 

JOAN WOODWARD: We've taken a brand new, off the dealer lot, and you've done this to it. So what happens to this car now?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So after we are done writing our report and releasing our results, all of our results go out public for free on our website. Anyone that wants it, IIHS.org. And so what we do is after a while, we release them to a salvage yard we have a contract with. And they pay us a certain percentage of what we paid for the vehicle. And so--

JOAN WOODWARD: So this might be on the street at some point? 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: No, no. We salvage them with a salvage title. And the agreement is parts, right? So engine, transmission, doors, other parts can go up for sale. But we never want to see this VIN on the roadway again, at least for our crash tests.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, good. I like to take some audience questions because we ask people to write in when you register. I have a great question here from Laura Murphy. Laura asked, "If you were buying a budget-friendly car for your teenager, what safety features would you require as part of your purchase?" I don't know if you have kids, but for any of us, when we're buying that car for our teenager, I mean, I want to buy a clunker, but I want to buy something safe.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. 

JOAN WOODWARD: I don't want to spend a lot of money. My taste versus my teenager's taste are completely different, so there's already an argument there. What do you recommend?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, and to answer your question, I do have two kids, an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old, one that's about to start driving. And historically what we've all tended to do is give the youngest, most inexperienced driver in our family the oldest, least safe clunker that we have. And so what we want to make sure of is to give consumers the best advice possible. And so what we tend to tell folks is, buy as much safety as you can afford.

JOAN WOODWARD: As much safety as you can afford. 

RAUL ARBELAEZ: And everyone has different budgets. And so look for crash avoidance features. For a teen, risky behavior goes up with young drivers. A car with a lot of horsepower that's very sporty, that tends to increase risk. If you can get any crash avoidance features-- we recently partnered with Consumer Reports to put out, again, our recommended vehicles, budget-friendly, safe, reliable vehicles for teens. And by the way, those are recommendations that can be used for anyone looking for a safe, reliable vehicle.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, and it's on your website?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: It's going to be on our website, yup.

JOAN WOODWARD: I see. OK, another question here, and we're going to get back to the car in a second. "Have new tech safety features reduced the number of crashes per capita?" So we just talked about 42,000 deaths on the roads last year and increasing. And we have bicycle deaths up. We have pedestrian deaths up. But what about per capita? Are we getting better or not?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So I'll talk about two things, crash worthiness performance and then crash avoidance technology. What we do know is when we circle back to the real-world data for vehicles that perform well in our crash tests, they have significantly lower fatality rates. So our crash tests, even though they use a dummy, and it's a very controlled crash test, you will have a lower injury and fatality rate in the real world.

When we look at new technologies, like automatic emergency braking systems, blind spot detection systems, both when we look at police reported crash data and the aggregated insurance loss data that our sister organization, HLDI, has access to, both show that when you have these technologies, you have lower crash rates in the real world. And so if you can get those technologies, go ahead and get them and leave them on.

JOAN WOODWARD: Leave them on. People do turn them off because they're annoying, right?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: For some people. And especially if they don't know what the technology is, they may say, what is that, and mash buttons until they turn them off, or--

JOAN WOODWARD: Don't do that.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah, don't do that.

JOAN WOODWARD: Don't do that. OK. Back to our car here. So tell me what else we should be-- I don't even know what to ask in terms of what you're looking for and what you're looking at versus what you expect.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So overall, this-- from the outside, the structure looks pretty good. We don't really care at this point how much the damage is in dollar amounts. What we're concerned about is, how well was the occupant protected?

JOAN WOODWARD: Oh, the occupant.

(DESCRIPTION)
He gestures to the frame around the driver's side door. 

(SPEECH)
RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. And so when I come over here and I look at the safety cage, one of the things that we are going to look at is, again, once we are able to take physical measures, because we take measures pre-crash and post-crash, want to see how much that toe pan moved in, because one of the things that is very important for crash tests and the types of injuries that are still prevalent today are lower extremity injuries, fractures to the ankle and the foot and the lower leg. And some of those fractures, although they aren't quite as life-threatening, they are certainly ones that can lead to long-term disability. And so we want to make sure to try to limit some of that intrusion to prevent those long-term debilitating injuries. And again, with this airbag in place and the dummy just sitting there afterwards, it's hard to tell how things performed until we can really look at that video and the data from the crash to try to understand what happened.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, another question coming in from Alex Zenk. Alex wanted to know, "What testing has IIHS performed on self-driving and electric vehicles?" So obviously, this is electric today, but--

RAUL ARBELAEZ: OK, so one of the things we know is that for general public consumption, there are no self-driving vehicles. There are some vehicles with very poorly named driver assistance technologies like autopilot that may mislead the public into thinking that the system does more than it should. What we know is that they are just driver assistance technologies that require the driver to be fully engaged and ready to take over, not if these systems fail, when they reach their limits.

And so what we do know is from some of the research that we've done on real-world data is that some of those, we are not seeing the real-world benefits from those technologies in preventing crashes-- technologies like autopilot. Again, what we do know is technologies that work are automatic emergency braking, blind spot detection systems. We're still looking at some of those.

For the other half of the question that you asked about electric vehicles, we evaluate them just like any other vehicle. And so far what we're seeing is that they are performing really well in our crash tests. And one of the reasons is probably because so much work goes into protecting that battery compartment that you tend to get very good structure in some of those vehicles.

JOAN WOODWARD: Wonderful.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Yeah. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, so any advice? We talked about teenage driving. How about just for the rest of us? I mean, in your long history of evaluating vehicles-- I'm not going to ask you what you personally own. I don't want to make a commercial for anyone. But if there's one particular thing that you feel Americans don't get, or they're just missing out-- like if people read your website, and they would have all this information, just give us practical tips if someone has never heard of IIHS and never gone to your website.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: So in terms of selecting a vehicle-- again, this applies to everyone-- buy as much safety as you can afford. Not everyone can afford a brand-new vehicle with all the latest and greatest safety technology. The good news is that used vehicles are-- have that technology that was new five years ago, 10 years ago.

Further, something I tell everyone is that none of that technology is going to help you in a crash if you are not belted. And again, we have 90% of the population on average using seat belts. But those 10% of the people that don't buckle up represent 50% of fatalities. And so it's absolutely preventable, and it's tragic. And we can help cut that number down. Impaired driving is certainly a pervasive problem that's been with us for many years. And we can cut back on some of the risk. And certainly, speed-- speed is something that--

JOAN WOODWARD: Still an issue.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: --is still an issue.

JOAN WOODWARD: And a lot of states have just continued to raise the speeding limit, right? I mean, we did have 55 nationwide, right? And just statistics show slower speeds, less fatalities, for sure.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: And as speed goes up, risks are increased. So there's a lot that we can do to help protect ourselves and those around us. And again, there's a safe systems approach that really everyone should be looking at, whether it's enforcement of laws, new laws; better roadway infrastructure; things like speed safety cameras; roundabouts at high-risk intersections; safer vehicles; safer drivers.

JOAN WOODWARD: It's so amazing. I can't thank you enough for hosting us today.

RAUL ARBELAEZ: Thank you for coming.

JOAN WOODWARD: --at the Travelers Institute, we're just thrilled to be part of-- just part of this-- and to share with my audience, just all these tips, all this information. And I really appreciate your website, too. Please go to IIHS.org. You're a nonprofit?

RAUL ARBELAEZ: We are a nonprofit. And thank you to Travelers and all of our supporting member companies that for-- since 1959, have allowed us to do this lifesaving work. And we hope to keep doing it for many, many years.

JOAN WOODWARD: All right, thank you, Raul.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward, (registered trademark), Webinar Series. Text, Upcoming Programs: Webinars. June 28 - Advancing Disability Inclusion in the Workplace. June 29 - Taking Your First Steps Toward Public Leadership. July 12 - Independent Agents: The Trusted Choice. July 19 - Global Hotspots and Geopolitical Risks with Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper. Register: travelersinstitute.org. 

(SPEECH)
To my audience, I just want to give you a quick heads-up on what to expect in the next six weeks or so. We have three webinars in the next six weeks. And then we're taking August off. And I want you to take August off, too. We're not going to have any webinars then. But let me just tell you, June 28, we're going to talk about hiring, disability-- disability hiring in the workplace. And it's a really, really important topic. 

Then in July, I'm going to welcome my friend and former Secretary of Defense. Mark Esper is joining me on July 19. We're going to be giving away his book, his recent book. So if you go on the website and register, that's available to you. Again, Mark Esper, former Secretary of Defense, on July 19. 

And then on July 12, I'm going to host Chip Bacciocco. Chip is with TrustedChoice. All of our agent friends know what that is. And so we'll see you on July 12. I'm Joan Woodward. I'm here reporting from this amazing facility at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And I just really appreciate your engagement. Be safe, everyone.

(DESCRIPTION)
She smiles. Text, Travelers Institute, (registered trademark). Logo, Travelers. A red umbrella. Text, travelersinstitute.org. 

(SPEECH)
[PIANO MUSIC]