For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo S60 have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Honda Accord doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The S60’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Accord doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the S60 and Accord have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The S60 Plus/Ultimate has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Accord’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The S60 has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed seat to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS allows the backrest to travel backwards to cushion the occupants and the headrests move forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The Accord doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The S60 has standard Post-impact braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Accord doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
The S60 offers all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Accord doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The S60 offers an optional 360° Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Accord only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The S60 has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. Only the Accord Sport 2.0T/EX/EX-L/Touring offers a blind spot warning system.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the S60 has standard Cross Traffic Alert and Braking Intervention automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Only the Accord Sport 2.0T/EX-L/Touring offers Cross Traffic Monitor and the Accord’s Cross Traffic Monitor does not include automatic braking.
Both the S60 and the Accord have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and driver alert monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Volvo S60 is safer than the Honda Accord:
|
S60 |
Accord |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
192 |
261 |
Neck Compression |
63 lbs. |
74 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Volvo S60 is safer than the Honda Accord:
|
S60 |
Accord |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
103 |
140 |
Hip Force |
212 lbs. |
431 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
271 |
386 |
Spine Acceleration |
50 G’s |
62 G’s |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
13 inches |
Spine Acceleration |
29 G’s |
34 G’s |
Hip Force |
490 lbs. |
756 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.