Are new models safer than older models? It is difficult to tell from outside appearance alone whether one car is more crash-safe than another. It becomes apparent, however, when a new model and an older model collide, and a comparison can be made as to the degree of damage each car incurs and the extent of injury sustained by the driver and passengers (if any) of each vehicle.
In the 1980s, a severe offset collision (see Note) usually crushed the passenger compartment to a degree that minimized the survival space for its occupants. Since then, the concept of auto design has evolved from simply aiming at a structure that absorbs the impact of collision by deforming the auto body to a structure that minimizes passenger-compartment distortion, even in a violent offset crash, by crushing only the front part of the body and by strengthening the passenger compartment, taking full advantage of computer simulation in the 2000s.
In the following analysis, we examined what happened in car crashes involving models designed under this new concept.
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