Impact of Speeds on Drivers and Vehicles – Results from Crash Tests

Despite numerous studies reporting the negative impacts of increased speeds on roadways, many states have steadily raised their posted speed limits. In response to these concerns, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety initiated a multi-phased study to investigate the effect of posted speed limit changes on traffic safety. The first phase entailed gathering feedback from traffic engineers on how posted speed limits are set and what factors they consider in changing posted speed limits (Kim et al., 2019). The second phase, which is the subject of this report, entailed a collaborative effort with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Humanetics Innovative Solutions to examine how vehicle crashworthiness and occupant protection degrade as impact speed increases. Towards this, three vehicle crash tests were conducted. Overall, as the crash speed increased, the additional occupant compartment deformations and higher crash energy resulted in higher peak injury measures recorded by dummy sensors over the entire body region.

• Record URL:
  https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/bibliography/2218
• Record URL:
  https://aaafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Speed-and-Injury-Report-FINAL-with-COVER.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  https://www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2218
• Summary URL:
  https://aaafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Speed-and-Injury-Fact-Sheet.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2020 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
• Corporate Authors:

  AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

  Washington, DC  United States 

  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

  Arlington, VA  United States 

  Humanetics Innovative Solutions

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Kim, Woon
  • Kelley-Baker, Tara
  • Arbelaez, Raul
  • O'Malley, Sean
  • Jensen, Jack
• Publication Date: 2021-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 80p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash injuries; Crash severity; Crash tests; Crashworthiness; Dummies; Highway safety; Speed limits; Vehicle occupants
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01764702
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 11 2021 9:26AM