COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS OF COLLISION DATA FOR DETERMING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOME VEHICLE SYSTEMS

This project has evaluated selected vehicle safety systems from reported accident records and additional data. The conclusions about each system are summarized below: The later designs of the Saginaw ball-and-tube and the Ford slotted energy absorbing steering columns appear to provide substantial protection to drivers involved in frontal impacts with another car. Their effectiveness is independent of that provided by a lap belt. The Saginaw mesh column appears to have little to recommend if from an injury reduction viewpoint. The fixed types of head restraint may be more effective than the adjustable type largely due to disregard for setting the adjustable restraint in the correct position. Females, tall males, and drivers have a higher risk of neck injury than do males of regular height or right front passengers, respectively. A side door reinforcement beam significantly reduces the risk of a driver being injured by a side impact. Impacts on the right side of the passenger compartment are less injurious to the driver than impacts on the left side. The addition of a side door beam reduces the driver injury levels in left side impacts to levels associated with right side impacts in cars without side door beams. In frontal impacts a seat belt provides a substantial level of protection against injury. Its effectiveness for energy-absorbing steering columns. In side impacts on the passenger compartment a seat belt offers as much protection to the driver as does a side door beam. An unbelted driver of a subcompact is exposed to risk of severe or fatal injuries to a higher degree than the average for all cars; when wearing a seat belt this risk is reduced to a level approximately that for unbelted drivers in late model full-size cars. Data also has been collected on 57 light vans, 220 pick-up trucks and 25 multi-purpose vehicles. /MSA/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Sponsored by the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States, Incorporated.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  Highway Safety Research Center
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27599
• Authors:
  • McLean, A J
• Publication Date: 1973-9-18

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 113 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles by type; Crash injury research; Crashes; Data analysis; Data collection; Deployable head restraints; Energy absorbing materials; Headrests; Manual safety belts; Mathematical analysis; Measures of effectiveness; Research; Vehicle safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Effectiveness; Vehicle make
• Old TRIS Terms: Energy absorbers; Vehicular safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00148797
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: MVMA UNC7301-C19
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 30 1977 12:00AM