RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — Before you buy a vehicle, there’s an incredible amount of time, research, and testing that goes into creating it.

Part of that includes crash testing to see how safe you’ll be inside a vehicle in the event of an accident.

Much of that crash testing takes place in Virginia at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

IIHS describes itself as, “an independent, nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths, injuries, and property damage from motor vehicle crashes through research and evaluation and through education of consumers, policymakers, and safety professionals.

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) shares and supports this mission through scientific studies of insurance data representing the human and economic losses resulting from the ownership and operation of different types of vehicles and by publishing insurance loss results by vehicle make and model.”

I went to the facility to see what goes into this research and how it’s making a difference worldwide in the auto industry.

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The day began in a lab room 650 ft. away from the crash test site. On the morning I was there, engineers were prepping a 2024 Lincoln Nautilus and taking painstakingly precise measurements of everything.

With a robotic manipulator arm, they measure how far the dummy is sitting from the driver’s seat to the angle of the sea, and how the seat belt is worn.

Engineers, along with representatives from Ford, started this prep work hours before the crash test was even scheduled.

“These guys work really, really hard to prep these vehicles for these tests to make sure they’re going to run on time and that everything’s going to work out just rights,” says Joseph Young.

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Joseph Young is the Director of Media Relations at IIHS. As we walk around the vehicle, he tells me what they’re testing for.

“One of the things we’re looking closely at is the dummy’s movement, especially this rear-seated dummy. We don’t want to see that it gets too close to the seatback in front of it. We’re also looking closely at how the seat belt interacts with the hips of the dummy and the chest,” he says.

One way to do that, I learned, is by adding a little paint to the dummy. When the vehicle crashes, the dummies will likely bump into something inside the vehicle. When they hit the front seat, or the side airbag, for example, the paint will smear, and researchers will know exactly where the dummy hit.

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If you’re in the market for a luxury mid-size SUV it’s probably a good idea to check out the results from the Lincon Nautilus’ crash test because then you’ll be able to compare it to other vehicles on the market.

“We will pull the dummy injury values from those dummies very quickly and [researchers] start analysis right away,” Young says.

Each second, of the 16-second ride, is captured by several cameras inside and out of the vehicle shooting at 500 FPS (frames per second).

I pulled up the safety rating results, and the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus scored well, getting a “good” rating on crashworthiness and seat belts and child restraints.

Raul Arbelaez, Vice President for the Vehicle Research Center says the IIHS rating encourages manufacturers to improve vehicles and that stretches well beyond Virginia.

“In China, throughout Europe [and] other parts of the world — are kind of modeling some of the things we’re doing and taking those approaches to their own consumer information programs,” Arbelaez says.

After I saw this test, I immediately wanted to know how my car stacked up.

If you’re thinking the same thing, click here and you can look up the Make and Model of all vehicles that have received IIHS ratings.

BUCKHANNON, West Virginia – From navigating the Covid-19 pandemic to being the impetus behind West Virginia Wesleyan College’s new Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, Community Care of West Virginia has developed a strong partnership with the College.

During Saturday’s 133^rd Commencement, President Dr. James Moore presented CCWV CEO Trish Collett and retired CEO Rick Simon with the Presidential Medallion, reserved for individuals whose work has enriched, supported and strengthened the College in ways that are extraordinary.

“Rick Simon and Trish Collett have worked tirelessly as leaders at Community Care of West Virginia to make Upshur County and West Virginia a better, stronger and healthier place and they have done this work selflessly,” Moore said. “Community Care’s administration of our on-campus health center has been a wonderful partnership. Their work with us during the Covid-19 pandemic was a veritable lifeline for West Virginia Wesleyan College.”

In January, the College began the first cohort of a brand new Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program led by director Dr. Jen Randall Reyes. The program is a collaboration with CCWV and Aetna Better Health of West Virginia.

“Their willingness to always devote their and their organization’s resources to our community’s needs time and time again is nothing short of inspirational,” Moore said.

Collett joined Community Care of West Virginia in 2000 as a physician assistant and became Director of Medical Services in 2008. Prior to serving as Chief Executive Officer, Collett was Chief Operations Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer for CCWV.

Simon retired in September 2023 after 30 years at the helm of Community Care of West Virginia. Under this tenure, CCWV grew from one location in Upshur County to its current status with 18 medical centers, eight CCWV-owned pharmacies, one dental clinic and 50 school-based health center sites.

Amazon (AMZN) is fulfilling its promise to spend billions of dollars on data centers in Virginia and has acquired another massive property in Manassas for more major development.

The tech and e-commerce giant paid $218 million for 91 acres approved for data center development, the Business Journals reported. That comes after Amazon bought 140 acres for data centers in Manassas for $152 million in January.

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The e-commerce and tech giant did not return a request for more details and comment. An entity run by Mike Garcia of Mike Garcia Construction sold the property at 14237 and 14209 Dumfries Road to Amazon.

In March, officials approved a rezoning amendment to allow the entire site to become a data center, and it’s also in the county’s Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, per the Business Journals.

Amazon has other major data center projects in the area. And other premier tech companies are expanding their data center portfolios there. Microsoft recently bought 124 acres in Gainesville for $465.5 million.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.