2000 Ford Taurus Safety
30 March 1999
2000 Ford Taurus Safety NEW YORK, March 30 -- "When you're redesigning one of
America's best-selling family cars, safety is a top priority. The 2000 Taurus
offers customers several safety firsts, including Ford's standard Advanced
Restraints System and a standard emergency trunk release. Added to this are
features that customers never even see, such as energy-absorbing trim panels.
All of this has been done to help better protect occupants in a broad range of
accidents."
- Helen Petrauskas, Vice President - Environmental and Safety Engineering
* Builds on the success of the current-model Taurus, which the government
has awarded its highest ranking -- five stars -- for both the driver and
passenger during frontal crash tests
* First vehicle on the market with Ford's Advanced Restraints System,
featuring integrated safety belt pretensioners, energy management
retractors, safety belt usage sensors, driver's seat position sensor,
dual-stage inflating air bags and a special crash severity sensor
* First mid-size family car with Ford's child-friendly trunk release
system, which will be a standard feature on all Ford cars sold in the
United States and Canada beginning this year
* Head-and-chest side air bags are available, helping better protect
drivers and front-seat passengers during side impacts
* Energy-absorbing trim panels help absorb impact during accidents,
reducing occupants' risk of injury
* Redesigned armrests better collapse during collisions, helping further
reduce the risk of spleen and liver injuries for occupants involved in
side-impact crashes
* Child-seat tethers anchored in the back seat further improve the ability
to securely anchor child safety seats
* New Ford Belt-Minder system helps remind Taurus occupants to buckle up
The 2000 Ford Taurus takes safety in a family sedan to all all-new level.
Engineered to achieve enhanced performance in both crash tests and real-
world accidents, the new Taurus features the most advanced package of safety
technology available in any Ford product on the market.
Five Stars
Some call it the safety cage, others refer to it as the car's skeleton.
Whatever it is called, the passenger compartment of the 2000 Taurus provided
Ford's engineers with a solid foundation for creating one of the safest family
cars on the road today.
With abundant front and rear crumple zones, the 2000 Taurus is designed to
achieve the U.S. government's highest frontal crash-test rating for both
driver and front-seat passenger. The 2000 model builds on the five-star
rating of the current-model Taurus, which is the only mid-size sedan priced
below $20,000 in 1999 to achieve the U.S. government's five-star frontal crash
rating for both the driver and front seat passenger.
Government scientists will crash the new Taurus into a fixed concrete
barrier at 35 mph, creating essentially the same conditions as two identical
vehicles colliding head-on while each is traveling at 35 mph. Then,
scientists will examine impact data provided by instrumented dummies inside
the vehicle during the crash test.
Paying special attention to head and chest injury data, government
researchers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration assign a
"star" ranking that corresponds to the level of risk the dummies had in this
test of experiencing a serious head or chest injury.
NHTSA has said that a five-star rating indicates that in their 35 mph
frontal crash test, the belted dummy measurements correlate to a 10 percent or
less chance of any serious head or chest injury.
Advanced Restraints System
In addition to its body structure, the 2000 Taurus' safety performance
stems from a new collection of technologies, called the Advanced Restraints
System.
Most of the nearly dozen technologically advanced components that make up
the new Taurus advanced safety system cannot be seen by customers. But this
revolutionary technology package will change the way they view frontal crash
protection.
Ford is continuing to move beyond mechanical devices to provide occupant
safety. For the first time in Ford production, a fully integrated, computer-
driven system that "thinks" about and responds to different accident
conditions is being offered.
A collection of sensors feeds information back to the car's Restraints
Control Module -- the "brain" of the system. The module takes into account
the driver's seating position, driver and front-seat occupant's safety belt
usage and accident severity before deploying appropriate safety technologies
during frontal collisions.
For instance, within milliseconds of a crash, the "brain" of the system
activates the car's pretensioners -- special devices nestled in the front-seat
safety belt buckles or retractors that tighten the front safety belts and help
prevent belted occupants from sliding and bouncing around during a crash.
At the same time, the "brain" activates a specific level of air bag
protection for front seat occupants -- after determining if air bag deployment
is necessary at all. The system also is designed to help further reduce the
potential for air bag-related injuries through the use of front dual-stage air
bags that tailor deployment force based on a variety of factors, including
driver seat position and accident severity.
The dual-stage air bags offer two energy levels to inflate deploying air
bags in a manner that corresponds to accident severity. A lower, less
forceful energy level provides occupant protection for more common, moderate-
severity impacts. Deployment with higher energy levels are required for the
most severe crash events.
If crash forces rise to severe levels, a metal bar tucked in the center of
the spool of the safety belt retractor -- called an energy management
retractor -- twists like a wrung-out washcloth. Such action releases small
amounts of safety belt webbing in a controlled manner and helps reduce the
risk of force-related injuries, especially to the occupant's chest.
Ford researchers anticipate this new system will reduce the rate of air
bag deployments in half for occupants who are wearing their safety belts
during accidents -- and by more than one-third for unbelted occupants. The
system is designed to help further reduce front seat occupants' risk of air
bag-related injuries, as well as cut air bag replacement repair bills.
Emergency Trunk Release
Ford's innovative new emergency trunk release system will be installed as
standard equipment on all Ford cars -- including the 2000 Taurus -- in the
United States and Canada beginning this year.
Last summer, 11 children died in the United States after becoming trapped
inside car trunks. Ford is installing a special cable-operated release system
to help prevent other youngsters -- and victims of carjackings -- from
becoming trapped inside car trunks.
Inside the trunk, a cable is attached to a T-shaped handle measuring
approximately 2.25 by 2.75 inches. The handle either hangs from the top of
the trunk lid or is located inside the luggage compartment near the tail
lamps, depending on the car model.
The T-shaped handle is phosphorescent, meaning it glows in the dark for
hours following brief exposure to ambient light -- without needing any battery
power. The handle is labeled with a picture to illustrate how pulling the
handle opens the trunk.
The easy-to-use design is critical, as temperature inside trunks can soar
quickly in some climates, creating harmful conditions for people locked
inside.
On the Side
To better protect occupants during side-impact collisions, Ford's unique
head-and-chest combination side air bags are available in the 2000 Taurus --
in addition to standard steel side-door beams.
Housed in the side bolster of both the driver and front passenger seats,
Ford's side air bag system is designed to provide occupants with enhanced head
and chest protection during side-impact crashes.
The special combination side air bag -- which works independently from the
frontal air bag system -- inflates an air bag for both the head and chest
faster than the blink of an eye in certain side impacts.
Sensors near the front-seat crossmembers or B-pillars trigger independent
deployment of the side air bags. They inflate and tear through the fabric
covering on the outward-facing side bolster of the seat.
The air bag deploys parallel to the side of the seat, and two distinct
sections of the bag inflate to absorb energy near both the occupant's head and
chest. The two sections help reduce the occupants' risk of both head and neck
injuries.
Hidden Touches
Customers likely will not notice, but hidden inside the passenger
compartment of the 2000 Taurus are special foam applications that help absorb
energy during impacts.
The energy-absorbing trim is tucked behind interior trim components --
such as the headliner along the roof rail and the A-pillar trim. When a
striking vehicle or object begins denting or intruding into the Taurus, the
trim absorbs energy -- helping to further reduce occupants' risk of injury.
In addition to energy-absorbing trim, the new Taurus features energy-
absorbing armrests designed to reduce the risk of injury to vital organs. The
new armrests do not look or feel any different to customers. But their
internal structure is designed to better collapse during side-impact
collisions, helping absorb energy that occupants may have absorbed otherwise.
Child Safety
For improved child safety, the 2000 Taurus is equipped with child seat
tether anchors in the back seat to provide parents with an improved method to
more securely buckle in their child safety seats. The straps -- which are
used in addition to traditional safety belts for securing child safety seats
-- are available through child safety seat manufacturers.
Belt-Minder
The 2000 Taurus also will feature Belt-Minder. Like other vehicles in
Ford's 2000-model year lineup, Taurus will be equipped with the special
system, which reminds people to "buckle up."
The Belt-Minder system uses a safety belt usage sensor located in the belt
buckle to determine whether a driver is wearing his or her safety belt. The
sensor feeds this information to a control module.
If a driver is unbelted when the vehicle is in motion, a red light in the
instrument panel illuminates and a chime intermittently sounds to remind him
or her to use the safety belt.
