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This study evaluated the response of restrained post-mortem human subjects (PMHS) in 40 km/h frontal sled tests. Eight male PMHS were restrained on a rigid planar seat by a custom 3-point shoulder and lap belt. A video motion tracking system measured three-dimensional trajectories of multiple skeletal sites on the torso allowing quantification of ribcage deformation. Anterior and superior displacement of the lower ribcage may have contributed to sternal fractures occurring early in the event, at displacement levels below those typically considered injurious, suggesting that fracture risk is not fully described by traditional definitions of chest deformation. The methodology presented here produced novel kinematic data that will be useful in developing biofidelic human models.

The crash modes that occur each day on streets and highways have not changed dramatically over the past 50 years. The need to better understand those crash modes and their relation to rapidly emerging, tailorable restraint systems has intensified recently. The algorithms necessary for predicting a deployment event are based on an approach of coupling the occupant kinematics in a crash to the sensing technology that will activate the restraint system. This paper describes methods of computer modeling, occupant sensing and vehicle crash dynamics to define a crash sensing system that reacts to a complex set of input conditions to invoke an effective restraint response.

Emergency situations rarely occur in a driver's experience and the braking and steering manoeuvres that are then required are usually outside the routine physical behaviour ranges. Immediate reactions are automatic and are therefore unlikely to include physical movements that go beyond these limits. It has always been difficult, however, to prove this because simulators could not create total realism, accident studies do not show brake pedal behaviour and realistic experiments are unethical and dangerous. This paper reviews what is known about driver braking behaviour together with accident studies. Experiments performed by Lucas are described in which pseudo-realistic accident situations are created and braking behaviour modelled.