A Quick Guide to Car Safety Ratings for Students in Auto Repair Programs

When it comes to cars, safety is incredibly important. There are many different components in a car’s design that influence how safe it is on the road, including how it responds to accidents and its ability to protect passengers. Together, they help determine its car safety rating.

Car safety ratings can range from Good to Acceptable to Marginal to Poor. If a vehicle wants to rank among the Top Safety Picks, it must pass a variety of tests for a satisfactory rating to be reached. If you’re interested in learning what work goes into making cars safe, read on to find out more.

Why Should Auto Repair Professionals Care about Crash Tests?

There are many different kinds of crash tests which evaluate different parts of the vehicle. For example, the moderate overlap frontal test is concerned with how a compartment such as the front or passenger seat will react to a head-on collision at 64 km/h. A small overlap frontal test, on the other hand, examines how effective a seat belt or airbag will be in the event of a collision with the vehicle’s front corners. Broadside collisions are more complicated because the sides of a vehicle don’t have as much space as the front or back to protect a car’s occupants, but side test crashes use injury measures, head protection, and structural performance to determine how a vehicle reacts under these conditions.

Auto body repair courses cover many different areas of vehicle repair, from parts management to estimates and material damage procedures. All of these aspects come into play when a car is in an accident and needs to be repaired. Professionals need to ensure that the repaired vehicle will continue to perform well if it’s ever involved in another accident. This helps to maintain the safety rating of the vehicle, and keep drivers safe.

Students in Auto Body Schools Should Be Aware of Accident Avoidance

Think of all the times you or someone you know almost got into an accident—were they saved by quick thinking? A glance in the rearview mirror or backup camera? A blindspot notification? While a car’s performance in a crash significantly affects its safety rating, the way a car is designed to avoid accidents also plays a vital role.

Students in auto body schools might be interested to know that when a vehicle is rated in areas of crash avoidance, it can be rated as basic, advanced, or superior. These ratings depend on its performance during track tests, and there are certain features that can influence how it reacts to potential accidents. A car’s capability with regards to accident avoidance typically relies on its braking system and emergency handling, two of the most important lines of defense on the road. Features like an anti-lock braking system (ABS) and electronic stability control (ESC) help the driver control their car in the event of bad driving conditions or an unexpected accident, which in turn influences the final safety rating of the car.

Are you interested in learning more about cars?

Contact your local Automotive Training Centre for more information about our auto repair programs.