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Improving Occupant Protection Systems in Frontal Crashes
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Abstract
In the United States, air bags will be required in all passenger cars and light trucks under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection. Even after full implementation of driver and passenger air bags as required by FMVSS No. 208, frontal impacts will still account for up to 8,000 fatalities and 120,000 moderate to critical injuries (i.e., injuries of AIS ≥ 2) [1]. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has an ongoing research program to address these fatalities and injuries and provide a basis for the possible future upgrade of FMVSS No. 208. This effort includes developing supplementary test procedures for the evaluation of occupant injury in higher severity crashes, developing improved injury criteria including criteria for assessing injuries to additional body regions, and evaluating the injuries associated with occupant size [2, 3 and 4].
More recently, in monitoring the fleet performance of current air bag systems, NHTSA has identified aggressive air bag deployment as a potential cause of injuries and fatalities of occupants in minor severity crashes. Accordingly, the agency has added new activities to investigate this finding in its frontal crash protection research program.
This paper presents an overview of the agency's overall research program. Selected results from the testing conducted to date are discussed. Finally, a discussion is presented toward improving occupant protection systems in frontal crashes.
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Authors
Topic
Citation
Hollowell, W. and Stucki, S., "Improving Occupant Protection Systems in Frontal Crashes," SAE Technical Paper 960665, 1996, https://doi.org/10.4271/960665.Also In
Occupant Protection Technologies for Frontal Impact: Current Needs and Expectations for the 21st Century
Number: SP-1144; Published: 1996-02-01
Number: SP-1144; Published: 1996-02-01
References
- Parker, George L. “U.S. Government Status Report,” Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Munich, Germany May 1994
- Hollowell, William T. Hitchcock, Ralph J. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Program to Improve Frontal Crash Protection,” 26th International Symposium on Automotive Technology and Automation Aachen, Germany September 1993
- Hollowell, William T. Hitchcock, Ralph J. “Improved Frontal Impact Crash Test Data,” Fourteenth International Technical Conference on Enhanced Safely of Vehicles Munich, Germany May 1994
- Stucki, Sheldon L. Ragland, Carl Hennessey, Barbara Hollowell, Tom “NHTSA's Improved Frontal Protection Research Program,” 1995 SAE International Congress and Exposition, SAE 950497 Detroit, Michigan February 27 March 2 1995
- Mertz, H.J. “Injury Assessment Values Used to Evaluate Hybrid III Response Measurements,” NHTSA Docket 74-14, Notice 32, Enclosure 2, Attachment I, Part III, General Motors Submission USG 2284 March 22 1984
- Haffner, M. Kleinberger, M. Eppinger, R. Hennessey, B. Fritz, H. Beebe, M. Hagedorn, A. Klinich, K. D. Ore, L. Tanner, C.B. Kuppa, S. “Progress in the Development of New Frontal Dummy Components for NHTSA Advanced Frontal Protection Program,” Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Munich, Germany May 1994