Video: Crash testing for dogs – Subaru pushes for dog protection

Most new vehicles have been designed to protect humans in accidents. Almost all new cars are put through stringent crash testings to find out how well they protect their human occupants. However, most human occupants these days also have non-human companions – mostly dogs, which are part of the family.

Up until now, there has been little, if at all, crash testing done to see if a vehicle can protect pooches. That’s about to change as Subaru, hopes to raise awareness on the issue by funding initial crash testing by the not for profit Centre for Pet Safety in the US.

In Subaru’s crash test, which was performed at a Virginia laboratory that tests child seats on a device that speeds down a track and stops abruptly, three dummy dogs (that’s right, no real dogs were used in the tests), each representing a 25-pound (11.3kg) terrier, a 45-pound (20.4kg) border collie and a 75-pound (34kg) golden retriever were strapped to a variety of restrains that were supposed to keep the dogs in place.

The results show that dog tethers are prone to snap in a crash, sending the animal rocketing forward into whatever that is in front. More worryingly, the Centre for Pet Safety reports a 100 per cent failure rate where none of the harnesses did what they were supposed to do!

It won’t happen over night, but we hope that eventually there will be safety rating for Dog Protection. Click on the video below to see one of the first animal crash tests being performed (some viewers may find the footage distressing) on a crash test dummy dog wearing a tether.

Source: Automotive News

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