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

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.