Because 30 % of the belted front occupants in frontal impact are passengers, it is important that their specific protection be checked in public experimental tests.
The characteristics of belted front passengers in real-world frontal impact are analyzed, from the statistical viewpoint based on several hundred thousand accidents which occurred in France over a ten-year period, and from the technical viewpoint (car front overlap, delta-V, mean acceleration, intrusion, AIS injury scale) based on the LAB’s multi-disciplinary survey.
It is seen that belted front passengers sustain chiefly severe thoracic and abdominal injuries (especially for the most elderly women). These injuries are attributable, above all, to the acceleration forces sustained and not to passenger cell intrusions in frontal impacts with an overlap ≥60%.
The experimental tests with left front overlap ≤ 40% being carried out at present appear relatively unjustified. In all, they cover only 12 % of M.AIS 3 + belted “drivers and front passengers” considered together, and only 2% of severely or fatally injured front passengers considered separately.