Development of a Vehicle Structure with Enhanced Pedestrian Safety

Every year several thousands of unprotected road users are killed in car accidents. The European Commission is working on new regulations to improve passive pedestrian protection on passenger cars significantly. Recently, European Parliament has made the decision to support the commitment on pedestrian safety proposed by the European Automobile Manufactures Association. Therefore, pedestrian protection measures will be required on all passenger cars sold in Europe from 2005. In this study, to improve levels of current performance, some modifications on current production vehicle have been made including the bumper, hood hinge, fender, etc. The lower legform and child headform impact tests were carried out on current production vehicle and new prototype. The solution for lower leg protection was achieved through a combination of design factors. Improvement of the headform impact performance was made, but it is required to further improve the performance through the control of hood stiffness. Based on test results possible solutions for future developments are discussed.