Evaluation of injury risk from side impact air bags

Prasad, Aloke Kumar; Samaha, Randa Radwan; Louden, Allison E.

Affiliations

¹National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

²Transportation Research Center, Inc., USA

Abstract

Several thoracic and head protection side impact air bag systems (SAB) are emerging in the U.S. market and are projected to become prevalent in the fleet. These systems appear to offer superior protection in side crashes. However, concerns have been raised as to their potential for causing injury to out-of-position (OOP) occupants. This paper describes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) program for evaluation of the SAB systems for OOP occupants and provides a status report on the current research. The industry’s Side Airbag Out-of-Position Injury Technical Working Group (TWG) recommended procedures for 3 year old and 6 year old occupants are evaluated. Additional test procedures are described to augment the TWG procedures for these occupants and 12 month old infants.

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-01/Esv/esv17/Proceed/00091.pdf

Cited Works (2)

Year	Entry
2001	Chidester ACB, Roston TA. Air bag crash investigations. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1999	Pintar FA, Yoganandan N, Maltese MR, Samaha RR, Eppinger RH. Three-year-old child out-of-position side airbag studies. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 25-27, 1999; San Diego, CA. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:25-38. SAE 99SC03.

Cited By (6)

Year	Entry
2007	Arbogast KB, Kallan MJ. The exposure of children to deploying side air bags: an initial field assessment. In: 51st Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 15-17, 2007; Melbourne, Australia.245-259.
2009	Hallman JJ, Brasel KJ, Yoganandan N, Pintar FA. Splenic trauma as an adverse effect of torso-protecting side airbags: biomechanical and case evidence. In: 53rd Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 5-7, 2009; Baltimore, MD.13-24.
2007	Louden AE. Side air bag out-of-position testing of recent model year vehicles. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
2009	Hallman J, Yoganandan N, Pintar F. Side airbag out-of-position deployments: thoracic injury to stationary and dynamic occupants. In: Proceedings of the 2009 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 9-11, 2009; York, UK.129-140.
2004	Braver ER, Kyrychenko SY. Efficacy of side air bags in reducing driver deaths in driver-side collisions. Am J Epidemiol. March 15, 2004;159(6):556-564.
2010	Hallman JJ. Detrimental Thoracoabdominal Interaction With Lateral Airbag Restraints [PhD thesis]. Wilwaukee, WI: Marquette University; December 2010.