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The development of a mobile deformable barrier (MDB) for use as a passenger car surrogate in car-to-LTV impacts is examined here. Since data from crash tests are subject to variations in vehicle properties as well as variations in test configurations, it is likely that repeated identical tests utilizing nominally identical vehicle pairs will yield different results due to these variations. It is necessary to account for the above variations and the resulting response corridor in developing vehicle surrogates if these surrogates are to be used for evaluating compatibility. Results are presented here for the ‘response corridor’ of a medium size passenger car, obtained from finite element simulation of car-to-LTV impacts with defined variations in the input parameters. An MDB concept is then developed to represent this ‘response corridor’ in impacts with LTVs.

Pre-crash safety systems are reversible systems that are deployed in a vehicle when external and internal sensors determine that a crash is likely. This paper provides a preliminary estimate of the effect of such systems in reducing the number and the severity of injuries to automobile occupants in traffic accidents. These estimates are obtained by combining test data for pre-crash system response with the statistical information on vehicle crashes available in NASS-CDS database for years 1996-2007. It is observed that significant reductions in the number and the severity of occupant injuries may be achievable by pre-crash systems that include pre-crash braking enhancements and seatbelt pre-tightening actions.