A major tool utilized by safety researchers is full-scale laboratory crash testing. The results of these tests on baseline vehicles, and vehicles equipped with safety countermeasures, are often utilized to predict the real-world safety performance of the baseline vehicles, as well as the expected performance of modified vehicles equipped with the countermeasures.
This paper analyzes one particular crash configuration, left side impacts, to determine if a relationship exists between laboratory crash test results and real-world accident injuries. This configuration is chosen because 1) the necessary tools exist—a test barrier which represents a motor vehicle in terms of weight and stiffness; and a dummy which responds in a human-like manner and whose responses can be related to injury, and 2) accident data exist which are consistent with the laboratory crash environment in terms of crash direction and velocity change (delta-V). The NHTSA National Crash Severity Study (NCSS) and the National Accident Sampling System (NASS) provided the accident data for this study. The laboratory crash test data were obtained from the NHTSA Offrce of Vehicle Research.
On the basis of this analysis, it is concluded that in specific crash environments, the relationship between dummy predicted chest injury and real-world driver chest injury is good. In the case of head injury, the relationship between laboratory tests and real-world accidents was not satisfactory.
Full-scale laboratory crash tests should be continued to assess the crashworthiness of motor vehicles. The results of one crash test or one accident, however, should not be the basis for specifying a vehicle's crashworthiness. Additional research is required in biomechanics, accident analysis techniques and laboratory crash simulation to enhance the ability of predicting real-world performance based upon laboratory tests.