HEAD SPACE REQUIREMENTS FOR SEAT BELT WEARERS

Investigations in New South Wales of Passenger car crashes involving the death of wearers of lap/sash belts have led to the conclusion that head impact with a rigid part (usually in the side) of the occupied car is responsible for more deaths than any other impact. The experimental work reported in this paper consists of crash simulations to map the space swept by the head of a lap/sash belted occupant, in head-on and in a range of side impacts in which no invasion or loss of head space occurs. The simulations employed an Ogle-MIRA dummay which has a very compliant thorax, modified with the stacked ball joint neck from a Sierra 1050 dummy, this combination having been shown to closely reproduce head motion of human volunteers in frontal crashes reported in the literature. The work includes validation of the dummy and an investigation of the infleunce on head space of the angle of crash, of inertia reels in the sash straps, and of seat springing, in contrast to the hard seats used for the volunteer crashes. The results provide evidence of the value of increasing head space so as to reduce the likelihood of head impact of otherwise well restrained occupants of passenger cars. Three current model cars are tested for availability of head space which is found to be inadequate, especially in front corner impacts on the occupant's side of the car, involving 22 degree impact yaw. /Author/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper presented at the 19th Stapp Car Crash Conference, held on November 17-19, 1975.
• Corporate Authors:

  Stapp Car Crash Conference Proceedings

  400 Commonwealth Drive
  Warrendale, PA  United States  15096
• Authors:
  • Herbert, D C
  • Stott, J D
  • Corben, C W
• Conference:
  • Paper presented at the 19th Stapp Car Crash Conference, held on November 17-19, 1975.
• Publication Date: 1975-11

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 675-704
• Serial:
  • Volume: 19

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash investigation; Dummies; Frontal crashes; Head; Manual safety belts; Simulation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00142012
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: SAE 751164 Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1977 12:00AM