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U.S. Mulls New Offset Barrier Crash Test

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it expects to add a "small-overlap" frontal crash test similar to one introduced last year by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it expects to add a "small-overlap" frontal crash test similar to one introduced last year by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland tells Automotive News the agency is developing such a test but declines to say when it might be implemented. If NHTSA adopts such a test, vehicles would need to pass it to earn the agency's top five-star safety rating, he says.

In the IIHS small-overlap test, the left front quarter of a vehicle traveling at 40 mph strikes a rigid barrier to simulate a collision with a pole, tree or corner of an oncoming car. The current NHTSA frontal crash test evaluates the ability of a vehicle to absorb the force of a frontal impact across its entire front end.

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