Update of the NHTSA research activity in thoracic side impact protection for the front seat occupant

Hackney, James R.; Gabler, Hampton C.; Kanianthra, Joseph N.; Cohen, Daniel S.

Affiliations

¹National Highway Traffic Safety Admin., U.S. Dept. of Transportation

Abstract

Since the 1984 publication of the results of NHTSA's initial research on thoracic side impact protection, substantial progress has been made. Specifically, the NASS data have been reviewed relative to side impacts, an updated injury criterion has been developed, the MVMA has conducted a very significant crash test project, and the NHTSA has conducted additional full system production vehicle tests.

The review of the NASS data and a comparison with the previously used NCSS data indicate the thoracic injury remains the highest ranking injury in non-rollover, non-ejection side impacts.

The updated injury criterion, TTI-86, is applied to the side impact dummies in the modified vehicle tests which have been conducted by NHTSA and MVMA. The TTI-86 is also applied to twenty production vehicle tests which have been conducted by NHTSA. The improved performance of the modified vehicles is compared to the average performance of the twenty production vehicles. This comparison indicates the potential for significant safety improvements for reducing thoracic injuries in side impact collisions for the given test conditions and crash severities and for several of the production vehicles that have been tested.

Links

DOI: 10.4271/872207

SAE: 872207

Cited By (6)

Year	Entry
1991	Fildes BN, Lane JC, Lenard J, Vulcan AP. Passenger Cars and Occupant Injury. Monash University Accident Research Centre, Cr95. Canberra, Australia: Federal Office of Road Safety; March 1991. Report No. CR95.
1994	Fildes BN, Lane JC, Lenard J, Vulcan AP. Passenger Cars and Occupant Injury: Side Impact Crashes. Canberra, Australia: Federal Office of Road Safety; April 1994. Report No. CR 134.
1999	Augenstein J, Perdeck E, Bowen J, Stratton J, Singer M, Horton T, Rao A, Digges K, Malliaris A, Steps J. Injuries in near-side collisions. In: 43rd Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 20-21, 1999; Barcelon, Spain.139-158.
1989	Gabler HC, Hackney JR, Hollowell WT. DEPTH: a relationship between side impact thoracic injury and vehicle design. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). May 29–June 1, 1989; Göteborg, Sweden.994-1007.
1989	Kanianthra JN, Trella TJ, Edwards SP. Safety performance evaluation of production vehicles in side impacts using the modeling approach. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). May 29–June 1, 1989; Göteborg, Sweden.1055-1071.
2000	Augenstein J, Bowen J, Perdeck E, Singer M, Stratton J, Horton T, Rao A, Digges K, Malliaris A, Steps J. Injury patterns in near-side collisions. In: Proceedings of the SAE World Congress. March 6-9, 2000; Detroit, MI. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 2000-01-0634.