If you walk through a pet store, you’ll see plenty of tethers, car seats, pads and other equipment designed to keep dogs in particular safe in a car crash. Dogs are often considered a member of the family and loved like one, so it makes sense that people would want to keep them safe, but have you ever wondered how effective all of those safety devices are?
Subaru has made itself the dog friendly car company, it even advertised during the Puppy Bowl rather than the Super Bowl, so the company has decided to fund the Center for Pet Safety, which tests dog safety equipment in real crash environments. The tests were held with three different dummy dogs, a 25-pound terrier, a 45-pound border collie and a 75-pound golden retriever. In all of the tests, which were performed on a machine that is normally used for testing child seats, the safety equipment did not keep the dog secure.
Dog restraints can also save a person’s life. A 90-pound Labrador flying through the air wouldn’t have to hit with much force to hurt a person, so keeping dogs secured during an accident should be a priority. Only 16 percent of all drivers use a tether, but as this video shows, even those dogs aren’t particularly safe.
"We’d like to see something developed over time, but it’s not really our job.” Dave Sullivan, the marketing, launch and strategy manager at Subaru of America, told Automotive News “We’re trying to do our best to raise the issue."
Source: Autoblog.
