Volkswagen's Passive Seat Belt/Knee Bolster Restraint, VWRA: A Preliminary Field Performance Evaluation

770935

02/01/1977

Event
21st Stapp Car Crash Conference
Authors Abstract
Content
This paper describes results of the field accident performance of the VW Passive Restraint System (VWRA) installed in Rabbit vehicles operating on U.S. highways. The historical development of the VWRA as an outgrowth of VW's research and development programs is detailed for perspective. To act as a baseline, dynamic sled and full-scale barrier crash testing with instrumented surrogates using the VWRA are presented. The primary portion of the paper deals with collected and calculated data from VW's field investigations which have been in progress over the last two years. Parameters measured and presented are vehicle repair costs, VDI, Delta V, OIS/AIS, occupant contact points, and some collision data involving NHTSA-supplied crash recorders. Specific areas of interest are explored - such as, frequency/severity of injury to knee-femur-complex, the head and the thorax.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/770935
Pages
49
Citation
States, J., Miller, S., and Seiffert, U., "Volkswagen's Passive Seat Belt/Knee Bolster Restraint, VWRA: A Preliminary Field Performance Evaluation," SAE Technical Paper 770935, 1977, https://doi.org/10.4271/770935.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 1, 1977
Product Code
770935
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English