The problem of applying dummy loads to occupant injury severity has largely remained unsolved and thus poses one of the major difficulties for the computation of the societal benefits of vehicle engineering measures aimed at occupant protection in crash situations. Some of the reasons are the insufficient knowledge in the area of biomechanics and the motion characteristics of present dummies.

While a new dummy generation is about to be introduced, progress in biomechanics will continue to be slow.

During many of the past benefit-estimating processes efforts were made to use the protection criteria of the U.S. FMVSS 208 (HIC, SI, peak accelerations) as guidelines at least for the number of occupants that are protected from fatal injuries. This method, though, is disputed because there is no documentation that fatal injuries occur—also statistically—when the limit values of the protective criteria are exceeded.

The German Ministry of Research and Technology has sponsored the project, "Development of Compatible Vehicles" which is carried out by the HUK Association, the Technical University of Berlin, and the Volkswagenwerk. Within this framework an approach was shown for the first time for a monetary assessment not only of fatally injured occupants but also of all other degrees of injury severity by way of corralating appropriately prepared accident statistics with experimental and computer simulation.

Even though some final work is to be done on the basis of a broader range of accident data, the approach may be seen as a useful substitute for the lack of knowledge in the area of biomechanics.