Next time you go shopping for a new car, you can rest assured that those gold stars on the window sticker represent the ultimate in car safety. That's because auto makers now have to work harder than ever to achieve that gold star standard. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced at the end of July that they would implement a new, stricter, rating system for new cars, according to this news report.
For the first time, they will be conducting crash tests with the use of smaller, female-sized dummies, instead of the average sized man dummy, to see what kind of injuries a woman would incur in a car accident . In addition, they will be conducting pole tests. With more and more cars offering advanced technology for crash avoidance, the NHTSA will evaluate these systems such as lane departure, blind spot detection, assisted braking and collision warning.
The NHTSA will also provide each vehicle with a safety "score" that will make it incredibly easy for consumers to compare one car to the next. As a personal injury lawyer in South Carolina , I'd like to remind you that these ratings won't be comparable to those given to vehicles in the past since the standards will only apply to new vehicles.
