Previously Rhule et al. [1] impacted PMHS thoraxes at 4.5 m/s in a pure lateral or 30° anterior oblique direction. Mean normalized force‐deflection responses demonstrated similar characteristics for both lateral and oblique impacts, indicating that it may be reasonable to combine lateral and oblique responses at this speed to define characteristic PMHS thoracic response, as has been done by the International Standards Organization [2]. However, the similarity in lateral and oblique thorax responses found at 4.5 m/s differed from paired lateral and 30° anterior oblique thoracic impacts on opposite sides of PMHS conducted by Shaw et al. [3] at 2.5 m/s. Mean normalized force‐deflection responses showed significantly stiffer response in the lateral direction. The current study presents results of new paired lateral and oblique thoracic impacts to five PMHS with variations in vertical impact location (xiphoid versus fourth intercostal space), impact speed (2.5 versus 4.5 m/s), and impact face shape (circular versus rectangular) to ascertain why the results of the two previous studies were different. Consistency of impact face engagement with the subject appeared to affect the lateral versus oblique response relationship, though the effects of impact location and speed were inconclusive.