The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced it will continue to use its existing
rating system for testing head-on collisions despite appeals to update it.
The system, developed back in
the late Seventies, assesses how a vehicle does when it crashes into a barrier at thirty five miles per hour. Standard
dummies are used to simulate driver and passenger. Depending on damage and impact management, the car is given a rating
from one to five stars.
Advocates for changing the system suggest increasing the speed to forty miles per
hour, adding different sized dummies to simulate smaller passengers such as children, and adding a new test measuring
side impact.
The NHTSA says further studies are needed before it will consider revising the current testing
procedure.