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Autoworld.com - David Lee - The Ford Windstar minivan performs better than any vehicle tested by the U.S. government during safety testing to a new, more stringent standard. The standard is designed to reduce head injuries resulting from contact with a vehicle's interior components. It evaluates how a vehicle helps protect against head impacts with pillars, side rails, headers and roofs.

Head impacts with vehicle upper interior components result in over 2,400 deaths each year in auto crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA). In addition, these impacts account for about 60,000 head injuries a year, 4,000 of which are serious. The government estimates that 1,200 fatalities and 1,000 serious head injuries could be eliminated annually because of the new regulation.

Beginning in the 1999-model year, 10 percent of all new vehicles were required to meet the new standard. Ford's first vehicle to comply was the Windstar.

In the Windstar, more crush space was added between the pillar trim inside the vehicle and the actual sheet metal.

That space is filled with special energy absorbing materials such as polyurethane foam. In addition, the pillar trim is made out of advanced materials that are less likely to crack, fragment or splinter.

Recent test results announced by NHTSA show Windstar performed the best of all vehicles evaluated with the lowest average test score. Windstar had an average rating of 666, 33 percent better than the value required to meet the standard, a Head Injury Criteria of the dummy (HICd) value of 1,000.

The test, done with a device representing a person's head, is conducted at 15 miles per hour. The device makes contact with specific spots inside a car or light truck. For the Windstar minivan, there are 38 different potential regulated locations.

"Safety is the essence of the Windstar," said Mary Ellen Heyde, Ford's Lifestyle Vehicle Line Director. "We have redesigned major aspects of the interior of the minivan this year to further help protect our customers from injury in case of an accident."

Windstar was the first minivan to earn the U. S. government's five star front crash test rating. And it's the only vehicle to earn the government's highest rating in both front and side impact crash tests -- a quadruple five star rating.

In addition, for the 2000-model year, Windstar is the only minivan to offer attachments for a federally regulated LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system. This is a full two years before the system is required for all vehicles. The attachments are rigid metal anchoring points in the vehicle seat that provide more secure and easier installation of new child safety seats also equipped with the LATCH system. -Autoworld.com

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