Honda’s Odyssey redeems itself with IIHS safety score

To help drive further improvements in frontal crash protection, the Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) in 2012 introduced a small overlap frontal crash test.  After two years, this test remains a tough one for OEMs.

A frontal crash is the most common type of crash resulting in fatalities. Major strides have been made in frontal protection, thanks in large part to the crash test programme that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began in the late 1970s and the crashworthiness evaluations that the IIHS began in 1995. In 2012, the IIHS created the small overlap frontal crash test to replicate what happens when the front corner of a car collides with another vehicle or an object such as a tree or utility pole.