Safety safety safety

I recently stumbled across a website that amalgamates all the auto crash test data, along with weight and safety features of the car, to give an overall safety rating. The percentage of total crashes that each specific type of crash makes up (e.g. frontal, side, rollover) is used to weight the crash test results. The website is from Informed for Life.

Overall, I like the idea and most of the execution of the website. It is hard to figure out what all the crash tests mean and what their relative importance is, and combining them all together is an important public service. Nonetheless, I have a few issues with the site. First, since they assign an average score to any category without data, some safe cars are brought down and some unsafe cars are brought up. This can give an unrealistic rating for a car, which is evident from comparison between cars that share significant parts of their design. Second, the crash tests are given uncritical trust in rating the safety. Perhaps this is the only realistic way to go about it, but I've noticed strange discrepancies in crash tests that may be worth taking into account. For instance, the NHTSA side impact tests seem overly sensitive when giving out five stars. I've noticed some cars go from a five star rating to a four star rating with the addition of side airbags. Thus, I think the IIHS side tests are much more important in determining side impact protection. Finally third, the rhetoric on the site is overly preachy and condescending. As rational as it sounds, it is not the whole truth that "...the purpose of our vehicle is to move us from point A to B, as safely as possible, and to avoid unnecessary risk-taking." If this were the case, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and the rest wouldn't (or shouldn't) exist. Perhaps it's all a matter of what "...unnecessary risk-taking..." entails, and perhaps these criteria are the ones we should usually consider and give most weight to. However, not everything in life should be a dry servitude to the safest path, and there are mixtures of enjoyment and safety in all things. Not driving at all would probably be the safest bet in any event, which would make this site useless.

I'll end on a positive note though: the site is important and I hope it stays active. With a few tweaks here and there it can become an invaluable resource, one that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone.

Summer doldrums

It's been a slow summer here at Kiss Blog. What with an upsurge in my work and the general hectic travel schedule that comes with the warm months, there's been little time to post on all things intriguing. Not that I haven't been paying attention: Libby's pardon, more and more and more dead in Iraq, terror in Great Britain and McCain running low on reserves have all gotten my attention. Though given these as postable topics, perhaps it has been better to leave the blog alone.