The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for setting measurement goals for the next generation of frontal and frontal oblique Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD's), More specifically, the requirements for the thorax-abdomen are examined.
An examination of field accident data from the frontal crash direction has provided insight into the opportunities for injury reduction and the needs for future ATD's. The United States files of the National Accident Sampling System are used for this analysis. Field injury patterns are assessed according to injury frequency and severity to determine injury measurement needs. Other injury files containing a higher proportion of restrained occupants are reviewed for comparison with the US national files.