Background Manual on the Occupant Restraint Issue

The occupant restraint issue is important not only because of the huge numbers of lives and injuries involved, but also because the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a requirement that, starting with some cars in the 1982 model year, new automobiles be designed so that in front and front-angle crashes, the severely injurious forces reaching the front-seat occupants be much lower than they are now. Contrary to widely made comments to the effect that DOT has required air bags in cars beginning in 1982, this "requirement" is actually a performance standard, and manufacturers are free to meet it with air bags, passive belts, or any other system or design that will do the injury reduction job. In fact, two passive restraint systems - air bags and passive belts - have already amassed impressive records in protecting front-seat passengers from death and serious injury in crashes. By March 1978, this real-world experience was so huge that vehicles equipped with passive belts and those equipped with air bags had each accumulated well over half a billion miles of operation on American roads. For example, the nearly 12,000 air bag-equipped passenger cars that since 1972 have been driven hundreds of millions of miles, had by March 1978 been involved in 185 reported air bag deployment crashes involving 267 front-seat occupants. The crashes included a very wide variety of violent, single and multiple impact collisions with both fixed objects, such as poles, and with other vehicles. Three in the Southwest even involved high speed impacts with large cattle. The front-seat occupants in the 185 crashes were of many ages -children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. The injury reductions produced have been highly favorable and entirely consistent with those reported earlier by the Department of Transportation and the Institute. The occupant restraint issue has had an extensive, complex history and involves matters of such importance. This manual and the extensive documentation it contains should prove to be a useful resource.

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• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/1219
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0932016030
• Corporate Authors:

  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

  Communications Department, Watergate 600
  Washington, DC  United States  20037
• Publication Date: 1978-6-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 112p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adolescents; Adults; Aged; Air bags; Animal vehicle crashes; Children; Countermeasures; Fatalities; Front seat occupants; Frontal crashes; Highway safety; Injuries; Multiple vehicle crashes; Occupant protection devices; Passive restraint systems; Performance; Restraint systems; Seat belts; Single vehicle crashes; Standards; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety; Vehicle safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Angle collisions
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01082953
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0932016030
• Files: NTL, TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 21 2007 7:57AM