In 1999, Korea government has been established KNCAP program to promote vehicle safety enhancement and to reduce road traffic fatality. Currently, total 8 test protocols are available to evaluate vehicle safety performances including the two types of frontal crash test and side pole test. As results of the reinforcement of safety issues, the average KNCAP vehicle safety rate reaches about 4.5 star ratings. Furthermore, from 2010, the overall crash performance assessment rating system was adapted to clear understanding of the KNCAP results with the voluntary labeling system which similar to US labeling system.

However, in terms of elderly occupant’s safety, the fatality rate is much higher than other age group. Conjunction with the current Korean elderly occupant protection research program, which initiated by the government resource 5 years ago, the assessment tool, may also include protecting a vulnerable road user, especially elderly drivers or occupants.

Recent researches show that the elderly occupant rib cage is relatively weak and fragile compared to the nominal adult age group. The current larger mass and stiff front structure of vehicle design required pretensioner belt system with relatively higher load limiter. When this belt restraint system with airbag were subjected to the anthropometric dummies such as Hybrid III 50%tile male or 5%tile female dummy, the injury performance were in excellent rate thus expected in good occupant protection in the real traffic accidents. However, in the real field, the fatality of elderly is more than 10 times higher than other age groups. The most frequent injuries are thoracic trauma, rib fractures due to the severe rib deflections.

The objective of our study was investigate rating criterion for pretensioner and load limiter performance for elderly occupant protections to define requirements for an optimal belt loading forces, and to quantify the benefits for elderly occupants within KNCAP testing system.