Browse Topic: Accident types
Since 2019, sex equity in traffic crashes has been a highly debated topic in vehicle safety, especially following the 2019 study by Forman et al. (1) claiming that female occupants face a 73 percent greater risk of serious injury in frontal crashes compared to male occupants. This was soon followed by a Consumer Reports Article by Keith Barry (2), which attempted to identify underlying factors contributing to the higher risk. These have been embraced by several parties since 2019. Firstly, it was alleged that vehicle design practice over the last four decades considered safety for the male population only and ignored that of the female as evidenced by the exclusive use of the mid-sized male Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) in Regulatory and Safety Ratings tests and not with an average sized female ATD. The absence of such an ATD for testing of vehicles “set the course for four decades’ worth of car safety design, with deadly consequences” (2). Secondly, although there is a
Electric vehicles (EVs) face unique safety challenges under pole side impact conditions, largely due to the presence of floor-mounted battery packs. Existing regulatory test procedures, such as FMVSS 214, primarily address occupant injury using full-height cylindrical obstacles. These procedures were originally developed for internal combustion vehicles (ICVs). However, real-world roadside crashes frequently involve obstacles of varying heights, such as guardrails, curbs, and median bases. While these obstacles pose limited risk to the passenger compartment, they can intrude into the battery pack and trigger thermal runaway. This study investigates the influence of obstacle height on EV pole side impacts. Finite element simulations of a commercially available sedan were conducted against rigid obstacles of different heights. Results reveal a non-monotonic trend of battery intrusion governed by the interplay between rollover dynamics and structural stiffness. Theoretical analyses were
With the rapid development of automated driving and the increasing adoption of “zero-gravity” seats, the crash safety of highly reclined occupants has become a critical issue. The current THOR dummy, designed for frontal impacts in the standard upright posture, exhibits limitations when directly applied to reclined seating configurations, including insufficient spinal flexion capability and excessive posterior pelvic rotation. In this study, the thoracolumbar spine kinematics of the THUMS human body model, reconstructed against post-mortem human subject (PMHS) tests, were analyzed. A two-segment linear fitting was employed to characterize a “dummy-like” spinal flexion response, yielding a virtual rotational hinge located near the thoracolumbar joint of the original THOR model. The characteristic rotation angle obtained from THUMS showed a strong linear correlation with the flexion moment of the T12–L1 vertebrae. Based on this relationship, the rotational joint of the THOR dummy was
This SAE Information Report establishes procedures and terminology for measuring, calculating, and referencing the percent vehicle overlap for a case vehicle in real-world or staged end plane collisions where the end plane of the case vehicle is engaged at one of the two bumper corners but not both. This SAE Information Report may be applied to rear or front plane impacts.
The impact configuration has a strong influence on the rear seat survival space intrusion pattern during severe rear-impact collisions. The relative contributions of rear seat pan forward intrusion versus rear seatback intrusion vary depending on the nature of the crash. In underride impacts, the rear wheels are pushed forward into the occupant survival space from below, causing the rear seat-pan to move forward and upward relative to the vehicle interior. Conversely, override impacts tend to produce direct seatback intrusion into the rear compartment. This study used a validated computer model from the NHTSA website to simulate various types of rear compartment intrusions under different impact configurations. The analysis also assessed structural countermeasures designed to minimize occupant survival space intrusion. The results demonstrate that underride impacts primarily drive the forward motion of the rear wheels into the structure, establishing load paths that lead to structural
Indian passenger car accident data indicates that approximately 44% of crashes are frontal impacts (Refer fig 1). Among the injuries sustained in these crashes, lower leg injuries are notably critical, contributing to nearly 25% of driver occupant injuries (Refer fig 2). To evaluate such injuries, the Bharat New Car Assessment Program (BNCAP) includes lower leg injury metrics as part of the Frontal Offset Deformable Barrier (ODB64) test. While the overall injury performance is assessed at the vehicle level, BNCAP also monitors vehicle interior intrusions—particularly pedal intrusions—as key contributors to lower limb injury severity. A major challenge in frontal crashes is the intrusion of the vehicle's front-end structure into the occupant compartment. Rigid components, particularly the brake pedal assembly, can be displaced rearward during a crash, significantly increasing the risk of lower leg injuries. Therefore, minimizing pedal intrusions into the driver foot-well is critical for
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