Honda minivan gets highway safety institute’s Top Safety Pick+ award

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded Honda’s 2014 Odyssey minivan a Top Safety Pick+ award.

Arlington, Va.-based IIHS announced Aug. 30 that the 2014 Odyssey is the first minivan to earn the Top Safety Pick+ award, adding the vehicle got “good” performance in all five IIHS crash evaluations.

IIHS, a non-profit organization that aims to reduce losses from auto collisions, evaluates vehicles at its testing centre in Ruckersville, Va.

As of Tuesday, IIHS listed total of 25 2013 and 2014 vehicles – most of which are midsize cars – awarded Top Safety Pick+ on its website.

In order to be named a Top Safety Pick+, a vehicle would have to be assessed as having good occupant protection in at least four of the IIHS tests, and acceptable or better in the fifth test.

A lower safety rating – Top Safety Pick – goes to vehicles that earn good ratings in the moderate overlap frontal test, side impact, rollover and rear tests, regardless of their ratings in the small overlap frontal test.

The small overlap frontal test, new for 2013 and later vehicles, “replicates what happens when the front corner of a vehicle strikes another vehicle or an object like a tree or a utility pole,” in which 25% of a vehicle’s front end on the driver side strikes a five-foot (152-centimetre) tall rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour (63 km/h).

“The 2014 Odyssey is the first minivan the Institute has evaluated in the small overlap front test,” IIHS stated.

In its side test, a barrier about the size of an SUV hits the driver’s side at 31 miles per hour (nearly 50 kph). The rear collision tests are designed to evaluate the quality of head restraints. Using a dummy with a spine with 24 articulated pieces to simulate the vertebrae, the vehicle seats and their attached restraints are fixed to a sled. That sled is accelerated to simulate a stationary vehicle being rear-ended by another vehicle of the same weight going 20 mph (about 32 kph).

In another test, designed to measure safety in rollover accidents, a metal plate is pushed against one side of the roof. In order to attain a good rating, the roof must withstand a force of four times the vehicle’s weight before reaching five inches (about 12.5 cm) of crush. For an acceptable rating, it must withstand 3.25 times the vehicle’s weight before being crushed five inches.

“In the Odyssey test, the driver’s space was maintained reasonably well,” IIHS stated of the small overlap front test. “Injury measures on the dummy indicated a low risk of injury in a crash of this severity. Because the structure helped keep the steering column stable, the front airbag stayed in front of the driver dummy during the crash to provide good protection. The side curtain airbag deployed and had sufficient forward coverage to protect the head from contact with the side structure and outside objects.”

While the Odyssey is the only minivan to be a Top Safety Pick+, three minivans got Top Safety Pick this year: Chrysler Group LLC’s Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan, as well as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Sienna.

IIHS is supported by several insurance carriers plus the American Insurance Association, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.