The Security Of Seats Behind Four Of These Five Popular Pickups Is Badly Considered By IIHS

Only Nissan Frontier (2022-2023) won the "acceptable" rating. (Doc. Nissan)

JAKARTA - IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) in the US has conducted a safety test of rear seats on five popular pickup trucks. As a result, IIHS concluded that the back seating on the five pickup trucks was unsafe.

In the test, four of the five compact pickup trucks were ranked below the standard. Although all of these pickups got a good assessment in the protection of the crash on the front seat, their back seat performance was very poor. Only one model, namely Nissan Frontier (2022-2023), was "acceptable".

Meanwhile, Jeep Gladiator (2022-2023), Toyota Tacoma (2022-2023), and Chevrolet Colorado (2022) all got "bad" ratings, while the Ford Ranger (2022-2023) got a "marginal" score, becoming the second-lowest safety ranking.

"From trials using mannequins, the risk of head and chest injuries looks high. All these findings tell us that rear seat belts need to be fixed," said IIHS President David Harkey, in a statement to CBS News at the end of last June.

The rear seat safety test was carried out through a medium-overlap front collision test. In the test, a car hit a deformable barrier at a speed of 64 km/hour, but not directly from the front. On the other hand, the car hit the barrier with only the front half of the driver's side.

According to Emily Thomas, the Consumer Reports manager for car safety, this test result can be a reference for automakers to further develop safety features in better rear seats.

"Stricter testing like this often encourages automakers to make changes that improve safety for vehicle passengers," said Thomas.