Recent research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has focused on how to improve the injury mitigation properties of steering assemblies. In a paper at last year's IRCOBI Conference, we described the magnitude of the total "harm" caused by steering assemblies and summarized the results of a model analysis to define injury mitigation properties. This paper presents the next phase of the research, which deals with selecting a test device and test procedure for evaluating design alternatives to reduce injury.
The approach for evaluating test devices is presented. Test devices are selected, and the results of initial tests are presented. Improvements in analytical models to allow simulation of the test devices are described. The research presented forms the basis for selecting test devices for the evaluation of steering assemblies.