Your car or truck’s back seat will get a whole lot safer. You can credit Uber and Lyft for that. Automotive News reports that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will begin placing crash test dummies in the rear seats of the vehicles it tests starting in 2019 as part of its 5-Star Safety Ratings Program.
For nearly 40 years, NHTSA has tested only for driver and front-seat passenger crash protection, but thanks in part to the rise in popularity of app-based mobility services, NHTSA will now test for rear-seat passenger safety as well. While a number of automakers have voluntarily added safety features such as seat belt pretensioners, seat belt airbags, and curtain airbags to the rear seats, the lack of compulsory testing has resulted in rear-passenger protection receiving less attention than that of front-seat riders. Besides ensuring a safer rear-passenger compartment, the NHTSA’s revised program also will apply additional scrutiny to the safety of children in car seats. According to AN, some safety advocates believe that advances in front-passenger safety, which test on adult-sized dummies, are leading to seats that are actually more dangerous for children riding in car seats. After researchers at NHTSA discovered that front seats that remain rigid in the event of an accident can result in whiplash-like injuries, seats began to be manufactured with a little bit of give to avoid such injuries. Unfortunately, seats that are designed t...