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The current federal accident data collection system is inadequate. It does not produce representative data essential for answering cause-and-effect questions concerning accidents, injuries, and fatalities, and it does not produce adequate data essential for conducting cost-benefit analyses of changes in vehicle designs, highway designs, or driver licensing policies. A proposed federal data collection system (SIR) can solve those problems at a total cost of about $6 million a year. The SIR system would include 30 investigating teams precisely located throughout the U.S., and would include a Sampling program, an In-depth program, and a Rapid-response program. The sooner this system is established, the sooner government and industry will begin to obtain accurate and reliable answers to pressing questions in the field of highway safety.

Blunt abdominal trauma is a major cause of death in the United States. However, little experimental work has been done to clarify the mechanism of blunt abdominal injury and to quantify tolerance parameters for the abdominal organs. This paper describes a joint study by the Highway Safety Research Institute and the Section of General Surgery of The University of Michigan in which direct impacts were applied to livers and kidneys. The tests were performed in a high-speed testing machine at a controlled ram velocity and stroke limit. The organ was surgically mobilized in anesthesized Rhesus monkeys and then placed on a load cell while still being perfused in the living animal. Tests were performed at ram speeds of 120, 6000, and 12000 in/min (5, 250,and 500 cm/s). The resulting load-deflection data were normalized and average stress-strain curves plotted for each test. In addition, the resulting injury severity was estimated immediately after impact using an injury scale of 1 to 5.

An open-loop limit-maneuver test methodology was refined from an earlier study which hypothesized a relationship between vehicle performance and highway safety. Refinements in methodology were attained in the areas of test apparatus, test procedure, data processing, and performance interpretation. Open-loop response measurements were conducted on a representative sample of 12 contemporary passenger vehicles. Numeric characterizations of performance are presented, indicating the range and distribution of response properties exhibited by the vehicle sample.

This paper reviews the state of theoretical and experimental technology relative to the dynamic performance of articulated highway vehicles. The review contains three major sections, corresponding to the traditional breakdown of vehicle performance: directional performance, braking performance, and combined directional and braking performance. An attempt is made to take a frankly evaluative point of view and to point out knowledge gaps and unanswered questions, in addition to documenting previous accomplishments and progress. The paper concludes with some recommendations for future research consistent with the findings of the review.