Why aren't vehicles crash-tested at any other speed than 40 MPH most of the time?
by 
Egao No Genki
ANSWERS: 2
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The government standard crash test is 40 MPH. This speed is used because it represents the speed involved in real life accidents. Most people are on the brakes when they hit something and are not traveling at full speed. It also is good to remember hitting a solid wall at 40 MPH is like hitting another car at 80. In reality cars are crashed at many differernt speeds. Where I work there is at least one crash test every day, normally more. I have seen barrior (hitting a solid wall) tests as slow as 5 mph and as fast as 55 MPH. It all depends on what the engineers need to know.
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There are other common crash test speeds: 50 mph - NHTSA rear crash test (fuel leakage test) 40 mph - IIHS offset crash test 38 mph - NHTSA side crash test 35 mph - NHTSA full frontal crash test 31 mph - IIHS SUV barrier side crash test 25 mph - NHTSA unbelted full frontal crash test 20 mph - IIHS rear crash test (whiplash) 6 mph - IIHS full barrier bumper test 3 mph - IIHS angle barrier bumper test but typically, crash tests to study injury are 30-40 mph because that is a typical speed of a severe, injury causing collision. The 30-40 mph crash tests are pretty bad for their speed; most 30-40 mph crashes aren't as severe.
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