Key Takeaways Before You Read:
1. A 2020 Kia Telluride survives a semi strike, gets repaired, then flips with a teen inside, and both walk away unscathed.
2. Every airbag deploys during the Oak Ridge rollover, including leg airbags that blocked an engine from crushing another owner's feet.
3. Real crash ratings on IIHS.org reveal which SUVs actually protect your family, and most buyers never check them.
4. Scroll to see the comments or be the first to voice your opinion.
A family SUV absorbs two catastrophic crashes in under a year. A mother walks away from one. Her teenage son walks away from the other. Neither has a scratch. This is not a TV commercial. This happened in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and it raises a question every family car buyer needs to ask right now. Are you choosing your next vehicle based on real crash survival data, or just on interior features and monthly payments?
It was only last Saturday that I shared my recent review of the 2027 Kia Telluride off-roader, which I had to stop to make a trip to San Francisco and resume after the return, and now we have another interesting Telluride story, which is a testament to its durability and safety.
Just two days ago, Jenni Bates posted a detailed account in the Kia Telluride Complaints Group on Facebook. She did not hesitate to call it a praise story. She wrote:
"I know this is the complaint group, and I have plenty of complaints. But, I also want to share some praise. Last year, I was rear ended by a semi truck going full speed on the interstate. I was at a dead stop. I walked out of the car shaken, but not a scratch on me. They repaired the car. A 2020 Telluride. I was shocked they didn't total it. Last night, a tire blew out on the car while my teenage son was driving. He remembers nothing after hearing the sound from it. He flipped and slid on the passenger side about 40 feet from where he initially flipped. Every airbag throughout the car deployed. He walked out without a single scratch or bruise. A bit sore, but I am grateful that the Telluride's safety features have acted as they should in both major accidents. Its performance is probably why we're both still here."
Read that again slowly. Two separate catastrophic events. Zero serious injuries. That is not luck alone. That is engineering.
Why Did the 2020 Kia Telluride Survive Two Massive Crashes?
I have covered the automotive industry for over 15 years, and I want to put Jenni's story in context. The 2020 Kia Telluride earned a five-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA. The IIHS awarded it "Good" ratings across all six crashworthiness categories, including the small overlap test for both driver and passenger sides. That top rating from the IIHS covers every major way a car can collide with something. Front impacts. Side impacts. Roof crush. Head restraints. The Telluride passed them all at the highest level.
That structural cage around Jenni and her son is not accidental. Kia engineered those results deliberately. When a semi rear-ends a stopped vehicle at full highway speed, the physics are brutal. The average semi truck weighs up to 80,000 pounds fully loaded. A family SUV weighs around 4,500 pounds. The Telluride absorbed that energy and kept Jenni in one piece. That tells you something important about the steel structure, the crumple zones, and the seat restraints working together.
The rollover tells an even more remarkable story. Among the family-friendly safety features Kia built into the Telluride, the engineering team designed layers of protection that parents across the country have described as genuinely lifesaving in serious accidents. Every airbag deployed during Jenni's son's rollover. That matters enormously. In a flip, a curtain airbag covers the side windows and protects occupants from hitting the pillar or the ground. A knee airbag protects the legs. If even one of those systems hesitates, the story can end very differently. Torque News
What Other Telluride Owners Say About Crash Survival
Jenni's post drew immediate responses from owners who recognized the pattern. Theresa Thuyns confirmed it directly, writing: "Glad everyone was ok. In the Telluride owners page I've seen so many posts like this. How they've been in terrible accidents and walked away with minor scratches. For all the negatives everyone talks about Kia vehicles, there's a reason why they are IIHS top safety pick every year. I've had mine since 2019, almost 70k miles and not one major thing wrong with it."
Kia confirmed those ratings continue to hold at the highest level, with the 2025 Telluride earning its third consecutive IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ designation. That kind of consistency across multiple model years means the safety is not a fluke. It is the result of sustained engineering commitment.
Shawnalee Fry offered a comment that every car shopper should read before signing a purchase agreement. She wrote: "My main reason for buying a Kia Telluride was the testimony, photos and crash ratings." She did not choose the Telluride because of a discount or a trim level. She chose it because she researched survival rates and owner crash accounts. That is exactly the right way to buy a family vehicle.
Lacie Wheeler added her own account: "I have the same story, my husband t-boned another car and he walked away, in our 2021 Telluride there were leg airbags and it's a good thing there was because the motor came through the floor where my husband's feet were. My husband didn't have a scratch or bruise at all."
The motor came through the floor. Read that. And he walked away without a scratch. That is what those leg airbags are for.
Is the Kia Telluride a Good Family Car for Safety?
This is the question many parents search online after reading stories like Jenni's. The honest answer, based on 15 years of automotive journalism, is yes, but with important context. The Telluride's safety credentials are genuine and well documented. The 2021 Kia Telluride established itself as a reliable, competent, and well-engineered midsize SUV that delivers genuine value, including class-leading safety equipment at its price point.
However, TorqueNews has also documented real ownership concerns with the Telluride, including oil consumption issues and material quality concerns that emerged at higher mileage. Structural safety and mechanical reliability are two different things. Jenni's Telluride protected her body in both crashes. That does not mean every Telluride is trouble-free from an engine or maintenance standpoint. You need to know both sides.
There is also the recall question. TorqueNews reported on a case where a 2021 Telluride caught fire due to a recall the owner was not aware of, which affects roughly 31,000 vehicles. If you own any Telluride, go to NHTSA.gov right now and enter your VIN to check for open recalls. That takes three minutes. It could save your life more effectively than any airbag.
What Families Should Do Before Choosing a Three-Row SUV
Here is the pressing problem that Jenni's story exposes. Most car buyers do not check crash test ratings before choosing a vehicle. They look at cargo space, seat count, Apple CarPlay, and monthly payment. Safety data sits on websites like IIHS.org and NHTSA.gov, but most shoppers never open them.
The solution is simple. Before you visit a single dealership, go to IIHS.org and check the crashworthiness ratings for every vehicle on your short list. Look specifically at the small overlap front test, the updated side test, and the roof strength rating. These are the scenarios most likely to kill or injure someone in a real crash, and the ratings vary dramatically between vehicles that look similar on a sales lot.
The Telluride includes standard safety features like forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning, and a driver attention system. These active systems stop crashes before they start. Structural safety handles the crashes that do happen. You want both.
Our review of the 2023 Kia Telluride goes into detail on how the Telluride handles and rides across its trim levels. And our coverage comparing Kia's ADAS systems in the Sorento and Telluride breaks down how the active safety suite actually performs in the real world, including some limitations worth knowing.
The Moral Lesson That Goes Beyond Car Buying
Jenni's post carries something bigger than a product review. She walked into a complaints group to offer praise. She chose to lead with gratitude instead of grievance. That takes real self-awareness. It takes someone who understands that fairness means saying good things when good things happen, not just filing complaints when things go wrong.
In automotive journalism, and in life, the loudest voices are usually the unhappy ones. Dealerships get review-bombed after single bad experiences. Automakers read thousands of negative posts that never balance against thousands of uneventful, safe, reliable ownership experiences. Jenni broke that pattern. She may have helped another parent choose a vehicle that saves their child's life. That is a small act with potentially enormous consequences.
Autoblog covers the 2020 Kia Telluride's crash safety ratings in detail for those who want the full NHTSA breakdown alongside the IIHS data in one place.
The 2027 Telluride now arrives with a redesigned structure, a new hybrid powertrain, and a fresh set of safety credentials that our team evaluated firsthand in Santa Barbara. The safety philosophy that protected Jenni and her son appears to carry forward into the next generation.
Choose your family vehicle the way Shawnalee Fry did. Read the crash ratings. Read the owner testimonies. Make the decision that protects the people in your back seat. That is not a sales pitch. That is just common sense dressed up as journalism.
Have you or someone you know survived a serious crash in a Kia Telluride or another midsize SUV, and did the safety systems perform the way they were designed to? Share your experience in the comments below. And if you were shopping for a family SUV today, how much weight would you put on crash test ratings versus other factors like reliability and features?
Images by Jenni Bates and Lacie Wheeler provided with the above-mentioned public Facebook discussion and used for news-reporting purpose.
About The Author
Armen Hareyan is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Torque News and an automotive journalist with over 15 years of experience writing car reviews and industry news. Now based in the Charlotte region (Indian Land, SC, he founded Torque News in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News on X, Linkedin, Facebook, and Youtube. Armen holds three Masters Degrees, including an MBA, and has become one of the known voices in the industry, specializing in the landscape of electric vehicles and real-world stories of actual car owners. Armen focuses on providing readers with transparent, data-backed analysis bridging the gap of complex engineering and car buyer practicality. Armen frequently participates in automotive events throughout the United States, national and local car reveals and personally test-drives new vehicles every week. Armen has also been published as an automotive expert in publications like the Transit Tomorrow, discussing how will autonomous vehicles reshape the supply chain, and emerging technologies in vehicle maintenance.
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