A review of the European 40% offset frontal impact test configuration

Cuerden, Richard; Cookson, Rebecca; Massie, Phillip; Edwards, Mervyn

Affiliations

¹TRL Limited (Transport Research Laboratory), United Kingdom

Abstract

Frontal impacts are the most frequent crash type and account for the majority of Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) car occupant casualties in Europe. This study reviews the performance of modern cars (registered in 1996 or later) in frontal impacts, which are most associated with KSI casualties. Comparison is made with the 40% offset legislative (UNECE R94) and consumer (EuroNCAP) tests. The aim of the study is to evaluate how well the 40% offset configuration and the associated vehicle loading and intrusion factors represents the real life injury experience sustained in frontal impacts.

Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) data collected from June 1998 has been used. There were 806 KSI seat belted casualties who experienced frontal impacts and were occupants of cars registered in 1996 or later. The majority of these victims were drivers. The study then analyses 435 drivers who had impacts that involved direct contact to the front right corner of the car. The nature of the vehicle loading in terms of structural features is considered and compared with the injury outcome and the associated mechanisms. Car to car impacts are the most common, although larger goods and passenger vehicles are prominent among crash partners in fatal crashes. About 80% of the fatalities are encompassed by the EuroNCAP frontal test speed rising to 95% of the seriously injured survivors.

More than half of the KSI car occupants sustain their injuries in impacts with more than 40% overlap and a significant proportion of these crashes involve direct loading to both longitudinals. Thoracic injuries caused by seat belt loading and lower extremity injuries caused by facia and footwell contact are the main body regions injured. Approximately 80% of the MAIS=2 and 50% of the MAIS 3+ injury is sustained by survivors with little or no intrusion to the compartment (<10cm).

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv20/07-0318-O.pdf

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Cited By (2)

Year	Entry
2014	Eggers A, Eickhoff B, Dobberstein J, Zellmer H, Adolph T. Effects of variations in belt geometry, double pretensioning and adaptive load limiting on advanced chest measurements of THOR and Hybrid III. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 10-12, 2014; Berlin, Germany.347-358.
2014	Mendoza Vázquez M. Thoracic Injuries in Frontal Car Crashes: Risk Assessment Using a Finite Element Human Body Model [PhD thesis]. Gothenburg, Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology; 2014.