I see it has 4-stars front and no tests for side impacts. I think there are not side-airbags, correct?

Seems a shame that the most FE car is going away. I'd love to have one, but I love the safety of the HCHII more.

Any concerns here?

 

Try...

Racer Critical: Insight Driver He Struck Virtually Unharmed

and

Think a SubCompact Can't Survive?

 

NHTSA Crash Results for 2006 Honda Insight

NHTSA Crash Results for 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid

It is also important to understand these ratings. The frontal crash tests that are done are meant to similate a head on collision of 2 similar vehicles at 35 mph. If the other vehicle is larger, the chance of injury most likely increases. In general, a 4 star rated Insight is no where near as safe as a 4 star rated large SUV in a frontal collision.

Here is the official explanation.

In summary, if 2 Insights have a head on collision at 35mph, there is an 11 to 20% chance for each driver that they will sustain a serious injury. If the head on collision is with a larger vehicle (almost guaranteed with an Insight), this chance of serious injury will increase.

 

The two links I provided, the Insight bounced off the other vehicle - it's not necessarily going to be like two trains in a head-on.

The above links only cover passive safety.

Rollover risk and manuverabilty is active safety - i.e. avoiding an accident to begin with. SUVs have a poor record in this department.

In my five years on forums (one dedicated to Insights) - there are no reports of an Insight driver killed or seriously injured.

 

I was just trying to make the point about when you can compare star ratings. Aside from the frontal rating, scores can be compared across the various vehicle classes. I only used an SUV as an example to show the limitations of comparing the frontal crash star ratings for head on collisions. As you state, there are multiple aspects of the overall safety of any vehicle.

Have you ever noticed a once frequent poster that studdenly stopped posting?

 

Only pointing out the Insight is no death trap - that's all.

I believe I've met him in Chicago and Oklahoma and read about him in the Washington Post. It was good meeting him.

 

Hi Noflash; crash worthiness is only one aspect of safety. Small, nimble, sporty, manueverable cars may be able to AVOID collisions better than other cars.

When displaying my Insight at shows, I explain to people that it's at least as "safe" as any other car of it's size and shape. But it's no Hummer or large military Tank. As with driving anything else, one just needs to be very alert and keep out of trouble.

Some people hold to the "fatalist" view. That is, when it's your time to die it may be a snakebite, a serious illness, an accidental fall, or a plane crash. We often don't know for sure if safety is in our hands or out of our hands.

Nevertheless, I choose to drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle I can get my hands on. I consider the risks the best I can; I believe if a traffic accident does occur, it's extremeley unlikely I will get killed. Minor injuries maybe? But I'm willing to just stay alert, drive the best I can, and trust that no major incidents will occur...........

 

I did not mean to imply that it was.

I wasn't referring to Wayne. I was just trying to say that if somebody was killed in an Insight, you wouldn't neccesarily have a way of knowing. At least I do not think there is a comprehensive database with fatalities by make and model. Anyway, what I was trying to say that if somebody was a frequent poster and died in a car accident. You may not ever hear that they were killed. They would just stop posting.

 

You had me lost - thought it was a reference to a specific person.

Of course the dead can't post, but that does not prevent someone to link such an article on a forum...


I might have had a knee-jerk reaction on the crashworthness of the Insight, but it's partially because so many people have talked like a 5000-pound or more SUV is the only safe thing on the road....there have been several threads that successfully refute that.

Oh well....

 

I've been doing some searches about car safety and fatalities. Just to clarify, I am not trying to prove anything and I have nothing against the Insight. My Civic is also a pretty small car.

According to the NHTSA, the only other vehicles that fall into the Insight's class (mini passenger car) are the Ford Festivas, Geo Metros and the Suzuki Swifts (all from the 90s). The only car that beat the Insight in any category was the Ford Festiva in the passenger frontal crash rating (5 stars). The only tests that were worse were the driver frontal cash rating (3 stars) for the Geo Metros and Suzuki Swifts. I believe these are pretty much the same vehicle. (A lot of the cars were not fully tested.)

I also found an interesting link from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety/Highway Loss Data Institute.
http://www.iihs.org/research/fatality_facts/occupants.html

There is an interesting plot of fatalities versus time. I believe these are absolute numbers (not scaled to total number of vehicles).
Here's another plot of fatalities for different vehcile sizes and classes. This one is scaled to the number of registered vehciles per size and class.