TWO NEW AREAS CONCERNING SIDE IMPACT PROTECTION FOR PASSENGER CAR OCCUPANTS

In vehicle crash accidents, approximately 27% to 30% of passenger car occupant casualties are attributed to side impact accidents. The annual death toll in side impacts for passenger car occupants reached 9000 in 1975 and 1976 and has been between 7000 and 8000 in the 1980's. Since 1977, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and many other groups have conducted a significant amount of research on occupant side impact protection with emphasis on thorax injury reduction. Three important problem areas in the side impact are (1) thorax-to-side interior impact, (2) head impacts with a-pillar/roof rail components and (3) occupant ejection through side doors/windows. While the first problem area has been thoroughly studied, the remaining two areas are seldom discussed and less well understood. Therefore, they are relatively new areas to many people. Since a large number of occupants are involved in these two areas, the potential for injury reduction could be very significant. The purpose of this study is to identify the nature and the extent of these problems and to explore injury mitigation concepts which may be easily applied to enhance side impact protection. A detailed accident data analysis and several experimental and analytical studies on potential safety approaches were carried out. The results show that the head impact problems are well defined and effective safety countermeasures are readily available. Also, ejection mitigation is a valid approach for occupant injury reduction. Due to the complex nature of ejection problems, more work is required to determine performance requirements for ejection mitigation. (Author/TRRL)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/01487191
• Corporate Authors:

  Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)

  400 Commonwealth Drive
  Warrendale, PA  United States  15096
• Authors:
  • Fan, WRS
• Publication Date: 1987

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 12 p.
• Serial:
  • SAE Technical Paper
  • Publisher: Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
  • ISSN: 0148-7191
  • EISSN: 2688-3627
  • Serial URL: http://papers.sae.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Countermeasures; Crash analysis; Crash injury research; Data analysis; Ejection; Fatalities; Head; Injuries; Mathematical analysis; Occupant protection devices; Reduction (Chemistry); Side crashes; Thorax; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Head injuries; Occupant protection
• Old TRIS Terms: Reduction
• ITRD Terms: 1357: Car door; 2040: Cervical vertebrae; 9009: Decrease; 1357: Door (car); 1357: Door lock; 1651: Ejection; 1602: Fatality; 1648: Impact test (crash); 2163: Injury; 1357: Lock (car door); 1637: Overturning (veh); 1457: Padding (safety); 9149: Prevention; 1367: Roof (veh); 1623: Severity (accid, injury); 1630: Side impact; 2083: Thorax; 1715: Vehicle occupant; 1311: Windscreen (veh)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00470066
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Report/Paper Numbers: 871114
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 1988 12:00AM