INTERACTION OF CAR PASSENGERS IN FRONTAL, SIDE AND REAR COLLISIONS

Compact/subcompact cars with dummy occupants were impacted in the front, side, and rear by a rigid moving barrier at 30 and 60 kph in order to investigate the interaction of car occupants. In the frontal impacts, an unbelted rear occupant moved forward, impacting the front seat back with its knees and hitting a belted front occupant, with loading via the legs and thorax. In the lateral impacts, a dummy seated on the impact side was thrown to the middle of the passenger compartment, striking a dummy in the opposite seat. The primary pulse had high peak accelerations with short durations. The subsequent occupant-occupant contact generated dummy loads evenly distributed throughout the body areas, but nearly doubled the total pulse duration. In the rear impacts, the main interaction was between the thorax of the front passenger and the femur forces of the rear passenger. The front occupant's mass forces bent the seat back until it hit the knees of the rear occupant. It was concluded that the requirements of ECE (Economic Commission for Europe) 17 and 25 for car seats and head rests are too low.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Published in HS-030 722, "International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impacts (5th) Proceedings," Amsterdam, 1980, pp 139-48. Conference held in Birmingham, England, 9-11 September 1980. Research sponsored by European Economic Community.
• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Institute of Road Research, Germany

  Bruhlerstrasse 1, Postfach 510530
  D-5000 Cologne 51,   Germany 
• Authors:
  • Farber, E
  • PULLWITT, E
• Publication Date: 1980

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 10 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Biophysics; Compact automobiles; Crash injury research; Frontal crashes; Headrests; Rear end crashes; Seats; Side crashes
• Old TRIS Terms: Small car
• Subject Areas: Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00372670
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-030 734
• Files: HSL, USDOT
• Created Date: May 31 1983 12:00AM