By design, crumple zones in a car should absorb shock and protect passengers in a collision by crumpling or bending. The crumple zone helps to distribute the energy from the crash, reduce the accident’s impact on the vehicle’s occupants, and minimize the harm they suffer.
Car crumple zones save lives. Whether a crash involves a car’s crumple zones may also bear on the outcome of a car accident claim.
What Are Crumple Zones?
Crumple zones are called “crash zones” or “deformation zones.” Manufacturers designed these areas to collapse and absorb the force of a car crash. They are strategically located at the front and rear of the vehicle to absorb the majority of the impact before the force reaches the car’s occupants.
What Are Car Crumple Zones Made Of?
By design, the materials in car crumple zones bend in a collision. The most common materials include:
- Mild steel and aluminum – These metals crush in a controlled fashion, allowing them to absorb significant impact energy.
- Plastic and composites – Panels and bumps typically consist of plastic or composite. They can add shock absorption without adding significant weight.
- Reinforcement bars – When strategically placed, stronger metals like steel or alloys can control how a car’s crumple zone collapses in a collision.
Crumple zones balance flexibility with strength, allowing the vehicle to absorb the impact of the car crash before it reaches the passenger compartment.
How Do Crumple Zones Work to Protect Passengers?
Crumple zones work by managing the two critical factors of force and time:
- Reducing force – Crumple zones absorb the impact of the collision, so less force reaches the people inside the vehicle.
- Extending time – The bending and collapsing of crumple zones in a car crash takes time, lengthening the vehicle’s deceleration and reducing the impact felt by the car’s occupants.
Think of it this way: A car without crumple zones is like a hardwood floor, while a car with crumple zones is like a mattress. If you fall on hardwood, the impact is hard and abrupt. If you fall on a mattress, it absorbs the impact of the fall and makes for a longer, softer landing.
What Are the Different Types of Crumple Zones?
Manufacturers have designed several types of crumple zones, each with a unique purpose. The most common types include the following:
- Front crumple zones – Almost all vehicles have front crumple zones. These zones protect passengers in front-end collisions, the most common type of car accident.
- Rear crumple zones – Rear crumple zones absorb the force of rear-end collisions and protect occupants from whiplash and other injuries.
- Side-impact crumple zones – These crumple zones protect passengers from T-bone accidents by reinforcing door structures so they will strategically bend and absorb impact.
- Advanced designs in electric vehicles (EVs) – EVs do not have traditional engine blocks, which gives crumple zone engineers more flexibility to design vehicles that absorb collision force and, in turn, minimize car accident injuries.
How Are Car Crumple Zones Tested?
Before manufacturers and dealerships can sell vehicles to the public, they must undergo rigorous testing to ensure their crumple zones perform as intended. These tests include:
- Frontal impact tests – Cars are crashed head-on into barriers at set speeds to measure the impact on the vehicle’s cabin and its passengers.
- Offset frontal tests – Vehicles are crashed into barriers with different parts of the front end to simulate more realistic crashes.
- Side impact tests – Barriers are slammed into the side of the vehicle to determine how side crumple zones respond in a T-bone accident.
- Rear impact tests – Vehicles are impacted from behind to determine how effective crumple zones are in rear-end collisions.
Organizations like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) measure and score vehicle safety features, including crumple zones. When you see a car manufacturer advertising high safety ratings, crumple zones are a significant factor in those scores.
Do Cars with Crumple Zones Have Lower Insurance Rates?
Crumple zones may reduce the impact and severity of car accident injuries, but they also increase vehicle damage. While this is generally seen as a highly favorable trade-off, it doesn’t necessarily have a favorable impact on insurance rates.
Multiple factors determine insurance rates, including:
- The vehicle’s safety rating
- The likelihood of injury to passengers
- Repair costs after an accident.
Crumple zones positively impact the first two factors but may negatively impact the third one. Your insurer may offer better rates for vehicles with effective crumple zones, but the potentially higher repair costs may offset those savings.
What Effect Can Car Crumple Zones Have on Car Accident Injury Claims?
Crumple zones can impact a car accident claim in several ways. For instance, they can:
- Reduce the severity of injuries – If crumple zones work, car accident injuries may be less severe, which can influence the compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
- Using vehicle damage as evidence – Because crumple zones should collapse at impact, evidence of extensive car damage may not support the claim that severe injuries occurred. An insurance company may use this fact to dispute a personal injury claim.
- Reconstructing the crash – Car accident attorneys often consult engineers and crash reconstruction specialists to help them prepare a car accident claim. These experts can analyze the vehicle’s crumple zones and how they functioned in the accident. This analysis can help a personal injury lawyer determine the effect of the crumple zones on the occupants’ injuries.
- Settling liability disputes – If a vehicle’s crumple zones fail to perform as intended due to a manufacturing defect, the victim may have a valid product liability claim and a standard car accident claim.
An Experienced Virginia Car Attorney Can Help You
Marks & Harrison has fought for injured individuals and families throughout Virginia since 1911, with a record of success in some of the most significant cases in Virginia history. With our highly skilled team of 32 personal injury attorneys and over 130 support personnel, our law firm sees cases through. Contact us today to discuss the specific facts of your car accident case with a dedicated and experienced personal injury lawyer. We are available 24/7.
