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In the United States, there are two leading frontal crash consumer information rating systems for light vehicles. The first is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). The second rating system comes from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (NHS). For vehicle manufacturers, performing well in these rating systems has become an integral part of their safety program and the design of their vehicles. However, there has been much debate on the impact of these rating systems on vehicle design characteristics, specifically, their effects on frontal stiffness to improve these ratings. Increased frontal stiffness in light trucks and vans (LTVs) has been shown to increase LTV aggressivity in LTV-car crashes, which is a concern. This paper focuses on how frontal stiffness relates to occupant compartment intrusion by vehicle type.

In September 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a report that investigated the incidence of fatalities to belted non-ejected occupants in frontal crashes involving late-model vehicles. The report concluded that after exceedingly severe crashes, the largest number of fatalities occurred in crashes involving poor structural engagement between the vehicle and its collision partner, present in crashes characterized as corner impacts, oblique crashes, impacts with narrow objects, and heavy vehicle underrides. By contrast, few if any of these 122 fatal crashes were full-frontal or offset-frontal impacts with good structural engagement, excepting crashes that were of extreme severity or the occupants that were exceptionally vulnerable. The intent of this research program is to develop a test protocol that replicates real-world injury potential in small overlap impacts (SOI) and oblique offset impacts (Oblique) in motor vehicle crashes.