Among all injury causing internal structures of the occupant compartment the footwell area deals with a percentage of more than 8 %. In three of four cases with accidental caused foot fractures a more or less destinct footwell instrusion/dcformation must be stated. A high degree of physical disablement, mostly combined with a long lasting recovery period, is the characteristic consequence of even moderate foot injuries (AIS 2+)

To evaluate the structural crashworthiness of passenger cars the offset crash test has developed to a commonly accepted test procedure. By this crash method the footwell compartment is extensively subjected to stress.

From a series of comparative offset crash tests with five different passenger cars of the subcompact mass class the measurement data of foot loads and objectives of the footwell intrusion are reported. Loads in terms of resultant acceleration range in a wide spread on 200 - 1000 g (1 g = 9.81 m - s -2). The extent of footwell reduction is fairly correlated to the loads. The inner foot position is mostly subjected to generally higher loads. From the loading mechanisms some injury preventional proposals of an advanced design in the foolwell area can be derived.

As a contribution to different existing measurement procedures for the footwell reduction a more sophisticated volumetric evaluation method will be proposed. Footwell intrusion, foot loads and foot injuries with relatively severe consequences are highly correlated. Progress of internal safety can be established by means of an advanced deformation measuring method as a tool for a developed and more injury preventive design in this sensible compartment area which is a part of the unabandonable residual room.