9/29/2009

To celebrate its 50th Anniversary, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crashed a 1959 Chevy Bel Air with a 2009 Chevy Malibu in order to demonstrate how far the automotive industry has come with safety. The Bel Air crushed like a tin can, see how the Malibu help up in the video.

The two cars hit each other simulating an offset front-end crash with each car going 40 mph for a combined force of 80 mph. According to the IIHS, the driver of the Bel Air would have died on impact, not being able to withstand the forces of this engine and hood crushing into the cabin. The driver of the Malibu would have survived, suffering possible knee injury.

The IIHS began collecting data for the insurance industry back in 1972 and later in 1992 it opened its Vehicle Research Center and began crashing cars and giving scores. Check out the still pics below the video.

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