In the last 25 years the safety systems, such as seat belt, airbag, and a stable body shell saved thousands of people lives in traffic accidents. New test requirements from local road administrations and consumer protection programs (NCAPs) give the information of the performance of modern cars to the consumer and the way to improve safety to the automobile industry. So a lot of work has been done to implement safety systems in the complete vehicle fleet. This was the first and very efficient step to reduce the number of fatal injured passengers involved in a vehicle accident..

In Europe the number of killed people in traffic accidents decreased enormously. The number of victims in 2008 was 28.4% lower than 2001. In Germany the figures show a reduction of the fatalities in the same time period of 35.8%.

The new requirements on vehicle safety lead to very complex restraint systems and to very stiff passenger compartments, In case of an accident very stiff vehicle compartments are raising the deceleration of the vehicle body and the restraint systems had to working on a high level of pretension force at a very short time. Systems which were implemented to save lives could now be contra productive and become a problem for persons who are not able to withstand such high loads according their stature, age or mass.

On the background of the demographic change the number of elderly people driving cars is increasing. This issue is getting more and more important in the near future, because in the case of an accident their body is not able to withstand those high loadings induced by the restraint systems and the high deceleration. Multiple fractures of the chest with following injuries of internal organs and accelerations injuries of inner organs and soft tissue are the result of this high deceleration and loadings. Also smaller and even younger passengers will be affected by this dynamic behaviour due to the belt routing and positioning of the passenger according the vehicle interior. The data evaluation of the GIDAS [1] and ADAC [2] accident data base is showing a lot of real life crashes were injuries could be detected which are more severe than seen in consumer crash tests, while the accident parameters are comparable with those of the crash tests. Especially women, small and elderly people have a higher risk of injuries. New test methods and smarter restraint systems could help to indicate problems and safe lives in accidents.