Crash incompatibility, crash compatibility, vehicle incompatibility, and vehicle compatibility are terms in the automobile crash testing industry. They refer to the tendency of some vehicles to inflict more damage on another vehicle (the "crash partner vehicle") in two-car crashes. Vehicle incompatibility is said to lead to more dangerous, fatal crashes, while compatibility can prevent injury in otherwise comparable crashes. The effect can be summed up in the fact that 80% of fatalities between light trucks and cars occur in the car. A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... A crash test is also known as a destruction test. ...

The most obvious source of crash incompatibility is mass; a high mass vehicle such as a van or SUV will tend to cause much more serious damage in a crash with a lighter vehicle such as a typical sedan or compact car. Another incompatibility is in the specific shape, stiffness, or other design aspects of the impacting vehicles. For example, the higher ride of an SUV or pickup truck coupled with the lack of a crumple zone leads to greater crash partner damage. Mass is a property of physical objects that, roughly speaking, measures the amount of matter they contain. ... A sport utility vehicle (SUV) or off-roader is a vehicle that combines the load-hauling and passenger-carrying capacity of a large station wagon or minivan with features designed for off-road driving. ... This article is about the type of car. ... Rambler American Compact car is a largely North American term denoting an automobile smaller than a midsize car, but larger than a subcompact car. ...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has done studies of the aggressiveness of vehicle designs- namely, the risk index for the driver of the struck vehicle. A 2003 study from the that eliminates weight as a factor found that car design is the safest, minivans are 1.16 times as deadly, pickups are 1.39 times as deadly, and SUVs are 1.71 times as deadly. When weight is not factored out of the analysis, it is found that light trucks (including SUVs) are 20.8 times as deadly in side impact crashes and 3.3 times as deadly in head on crashes. In 1999 there were 12,242 people in the US killed in vehicle on vehicle collisions, so the net effect of improving vehicle compatibility would likely be several thousand vehicular homicides prevented each year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, often pronounced nit-suh) is a U.S. Government agency, part of the Department of Transportation, responsible for setting safety standards and verifying compliance by automobile manufacturers. ...

These studies have been highly controversial as they impact public perception and policy decisions on CAFE standards and light truck regulatory loopholes. American motor companies have tended to emphasize increased safety to the occupants of heavier vehicles, while Japanese motor companies have emphasized the common interest in better vehicle compatibility and emission standards. In the deregulatory environment of recent years, no governmental steps have been taken to improve vehicle compatibility. Individual car makers such as Honda and Ford have been claiming to make improvements to vehicle compatibility, but the lack of an objective voice on the matter makes evaluation difficult. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations in the United States, first enacted by Congress in 1975, exist to regulate and improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks (trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles) sold in the US. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) is the sales weighted...

Although much of the crash incompatibility debate in recent years has centered around SUVs, the concept has been around far longer. For example, when subcompact cars were introduced in the 1970s, there was fear that mass incompatibilties, and possibly design incompatibilities, could lead to more serious injuries for drivers of these smaller, lighter vehicles. Crash incompatibility is an area of active study, although to date only a small fraction of crash tests focus on two-car crashes, and an even smaller proportion are properly designed to address incompatibility issues. This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ...

See also

• car safety

Car safety is the avoidance of car accidents or the minimization of harmful effects of accidents, in particular as pertaining to human life and health. ...

External links

• The most complete National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report is located here:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/regrev/evaluate/pdf/809662.pdf The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, often pronounced nit-suh) is a U.S. Government agency, part of the Department of Transportation, responsible for setting safety standards and verifying compliance by automobile manufacturers. ...

• For a another report on vehicle incompatibility, see the April 4 2003 Status Report (Vol 38., No. 4) of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: http://www.hwysafety.org/srpdfs/sr3804.pdf.