Technical Paper
Side-Impact Air Bags in Side Crashes: Not Deploying as Designed? A Review of Real World Crash Data
2010-04-12
2010-01-1045
Background: Frontal crashes are the most common motor vehicle crashes (MVC), however, near sided crashes produce more severe injuries. Side impact airbags (SIAB) were designed to mitigate and prevent severe injuries and are associated with up to 45% mortality reduction as reported (IIHS 2003). Objective: Limited data on deployment rates of SIAB in severe real world lateral crashes has been reported. The objective of this study is to determine deployment rates of SIAB in severe injury side impact collisions utilizing the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) database. Methods: The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration CIREN database was queried for side impact MVCs during 1997 - 2009. There were 3,766 passenger vehicle crashes of which 515 vehicles had SIAB installed. Additionally, crash metrics, direction of force, delta V and SIAB sensor location were examined.
