Nine Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) tests were published by Luet et al. (2012) as a reference for submarining assessment. These tests suffered limitations, however, due to the rigid characteristics of the seat. The objective of this study is to assess the submarining ability of existing dummies in more realistic conditions, i.e. on a real seat.

In total, nine PMHS sled tests were performed on a real seat to procure data in 3 different configurations. The tests were also duplicated with HII, HIII and THOR Mod Kit dummies to evaluate their behaviour in comparison to corridors built with 3 PMHS each.

The external forces, the pelvis kinematics and the injury assessments are provided here. The dummy responses are compared to the PMHS corridors. No submarining was observed in the standard configuration. Iliac crest fractures and submarining were observed in the slouched position intended to generate submarining. Finally, for two subjects out of three, no iliac wing fracture and no submarining were observed in the slouched position with a lap‐belt load limitation at 4 kN and a pretension system.