Live Subject Safety Research - Side Impact

For twenty years the dynamic test protocol for automotive safety research has been to use an anthropomorphic dummy in sled and crash test simulations. For the past four years, the author and associates have created and used a computer test protocol to model real world accidents and determine injury reduction from potential design modifications without some of the limitations and cost of the physical hardware and test procedure.

The computer test protocol is described and examples of the research results in side and rollover accidents are detailed. Preliminary conclusions about injury reduction countermeasures and continuing research are suggested.