A comparison of U-M CIREN (University of Michigan Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network) cases to crash tests used in the automotive industry is presented in this paper. 442 U-M CIREN crashes were compared to crash test configurations used throughout the industry. Of those 442 cases, 49% were similar in crash configuration and crash extent to industry crash tests. 32% of the cases were similar to one of the industry crash tests in configuration but had greater extent. 20% of the cases did not match any of the current industry crash tests.

This analysis concluded that the majority of injuries in this study occurred in crash configurations similar to existing crash tests while only 20% of cases had crash configurations that were not represented by current crash tests. Any consideration of increasing test severity to address those crashes that produce a greater extent of crash deformation than that produced in crash tests must consider a broader spectrum of collisions including non-injury producing crashes. This analysis must be done in a way that does not increase the risk to the current uninjured population that is not included in the CIREN database.