AUTO SAFETY

In this letter in reply to the article "Auto crash tests unsettle Japan and Detroit" (Science, 9 January 1981, p.150), the author takes issue with the standards used by NHTSA to evaluate crash tests. A test dummy Head Injury Criteria (HIC) value over 1000 is classified as "failure" (i.e. serious injury or fatality) by NHTSA. However, in the author's opinion, how high the HIC value must be to indicate reliably a specific level of injury is not within the scope of current technology; and a HIC value in excess of 1000 is not necessarily indicative of a serious or fatal injury. NHTSA's pass/fail system is particularly misleading at or near the 1000 threshold where differences are small (e.g. a car with a HIC value of 997 "passed" while one with a value of 1024 "failed"). An analysis of NHTSA's own accident data file indicates only about 5 percent of accidents are representative of the full-front barrier-type test used by NHTSA in its rating system, thus calling into question the utility of its test data.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00368075
• Corporate Authors:

  American University

  Development Education and Training Research Institute
  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Ancker-Johnson, B
• Publication Date: 1981-5-8

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 610
• Serial:
  • Science
  • Volume: 212
  • Issue Number: 4495
  • Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • ISSN: 0036-8075
  • Serial URL: http://science.sciencemag.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash tests; Dummies; Fatalities; Head; Injuries; Injury severity; Ratings; Standards; Test procedures; Validity; Vehicle safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Criteria; Severity
• Old TRIS Terms: Vehicular safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I95: Vehicle Inspection;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00335417
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 29 1982 12:00AM