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Injuries of the Occipitoatlantoaxial (Occ-C2) region (also known as atlanto-occipital injuries) are the most common form of cervical injury in children aged ten years and younger. The crash studied in this paper is unique in that there were three children ages 3, 6 and 7 involved in a frontal crash with a delta V of 28mph with each child receiving a nonfatal Occ-C2 injury of varying degrees. The 3 and 6 year-old children were remarkably similar in height and weight to the 3 and 6 year-old Hybrid III ATD's. Also, unique to this case is the fact that the right rear 6 year-old occupant likely sustained an Occ-C2 injury prior to impact with the frame of the front passenger seat. This crash environment was recreated utilizing MADYMO occupant simulation software. The models for the Hybrid III 3 and 6 year-old ATDs were used to represent the occupants in this crash.

Concern about crash conditions other than frontal and side crashes has accelerated restraint development with respect to rollover events. Previous analysis of rollover field data indicates the high probability of ejection and consequent serious injury or death to unbelted occupants. Partial ejection of belted occupants may also occur. Restraint development has focused on belt technologies and more recently, airbag systems as a method to reduce ejection and injury risk. Effective restraint development for these emerging technologies should consider a combined approach of field injury data analysis, computer simulation of rollover, corresponding validated test data and hardware development techniques. First, crash data was analyzed for identified rollover modes (crash sequences) and injured body regions. This helped to determine possible restraint interventions.

As passenger-side airbags are introduced into the vehicle fleet, consideration must be given to the possible interaction of the airbag with children and child restraint systems. Specifically, a rear-facing infant seat may represent an out-of-position occupanVrestraint system in relation to the deploying airbag due to the limited distance between the infant seat and the instrument panel. Current safety standards for child restraints do not address this issue and the potential for serious injury mandates further analysis. Simulation studies can assist in understanding the behavior of such interaction and help to reduce the number of tests to evaluate infant seat performance. New developments in simulation technology offer state-of-the-art tools to simulate a deploying airbag using a finite element model while the occupant, infant seat and vehicle interior are simulated with linked rigid body systems.

Interaction of the human arm and deploying airbag has been studied in the laboratory using post mortem human subjects (PMHS). These studies have shown how arm position on the steering wheel and proximity to the airbag prior to deployment can influence the risk of forearm bone fractures. Most of these studies used older driver airbag modules that have been supplanted by advanced airbag technology. In addition, new numerical human body models have been developed to complement, and possibly replace, the human testing needed to evaluate new airbag technology. The objective of this study is to use a finite element-based numerical (MADYMO) model, representing the human arm, to evaluate the effects of advanced driver airbag parameters on the injury potential to the bones of the forearm. The paper shows how the model is correlated to Average Distal Forearm Speed (ADFS) and arm kinematics from two PMHS tests.