Broward Injury Lawyer Blog
Listen up Toyota Camry owners! You might be driving one of the country’s most popular cars, but you’re not driving the safest! According to CNN Money, the Camry recently received “poor” markings on the latest safety ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
In the test, the vehicles struck a concrete wall while traveling at about 40 miles per hour. The results proved that the passenger would have likely sustained serious injuries. The bodies of the vehicles didn’t do their jobs in protecting passengers. In addition, the airbags on these vehicles didn’t do enough.
Our Broward car accident lawyers understand that there are many consumers that never even think to check out these ratings before purchasing a car. It’s super simple and there’s no reason not to do so. All you have to do is stop by SafeCar.gov. On this website, you can check out any and all vehicles’ safety ratings. Here, they are measured on a 5-star rating scale. Five stars is the highest rating while one star is the lowest ranking. You can check both new cars and used models. Tests are keeping up with vehicle advancements, too. They now look into crash avoidance technologies as well as other vehicle safety features. Overall vehicle score and frontal crash ratings should ONLY be compared to other vehicles of similar size and weight.
In the recent tests from the IISH, they looked into safety ratings of nearly 20 vehicles. Only about half of them received top marks. Many of our country’s most popular cars did poorly.
The Camry and the Prius virtually collapsed in these crashes. The occupants of these vehicles were likely to have been severely injured in these accidents.
“Toyota engineers have a lot of work to do to match the performance of their competitors,” said Institute president Adrian Lund.
Of the cars with “good” ratings were the Suzuki Kizashi and the Honda Accord. Unfortunately, you’re only able to get one of those vehicles here in the U.S. Suzuki pulled sales of this vehicle here in the U.S. because of poor consumer response. The company only sold about 500 of them in November, while the Toyota Camry sold close to 30,000 during the same month.
Most of the vehicles tested only got an “acceptable” rating. Included in this category are the Subaru Outback and Legacy, the Wolkswagen Passat, the Mazda6, the Kid Optima, the Dodge Avenger, the Nissan Maxima and Altima and the Chrysler 200.
Receiving “marginal” rankings (the second-worse one can get) were the Chevrolet Malibu, Volkswagen Jetta sedan and the Hyundai Sonata.
The Camry and the Prius did receive the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick designation but weren’t lucky enough to get the Top Safety Pick Plus award.
If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an traffic accident, contact Fort Lauderdale Accident Lawyer Richard Ansara at 954 761-3641 or toll-free at 877-277-3780 for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights.
More Blog Entries:
Seat Belts: Saving Lives in Broward, Broward Injury Lawyer Blog, November 30, 2012
Slow It Down in Fog, Smoke and South Florida Rain, Broward Injury Lawyer Blog, November 10, 2012
