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The responses of a 5th percentile female ATD in the driver and/or rear passenger positions of 56 crashes are described. The Transport Canada side impact programme consisted of LTV-to-car impacts, car-to-car impacts and IIHS barrier-to-car tests. The majority of the tests involved severe crash conditions for which the vehicles were not designed. The SID-IIs head, chest and abdominal responses were compared to determine the effects of the striking bullet geometry, the angle of impact, the impact point and the self-protective elements of the struck vehicle, including airbag technology and armrest designs. The SID-IIs head responses and deflection measures were sufficiently sensitive to discriminate between the various striking vehicles, crash configurations, airbag systems and armrest characteristics.

Child dummies were seated in size appropriate child restraints and exposed to in-vehicle, static, side mounted airbag deployments as well as full scale side impact crash tests. The child seat sample included rear and forward facing child restraints and booster seats. Anthropomorphic test dummies (ATD) included an 18 month infant and fully instrumented Hybrid III 3 year old and Hybrid III 6 year old child dummies. Preliminary results suggest that properly restrained infants and children occupying age appropriate child seats may receive some protective benefits from side airbags provided the child seat and the child occupant are correctly positioned.

The NHTSA’s final interim rule on advanced airbags describes two static out-of-position test procedures for the 5th percentile female dummy. Recent testing by Transport Canada suggests that the procedure described for the positions may not be representative of the worst case condition and may include elements that are not realistic for a 5th percentile driver. A modified positioning procedure which prioritizes chest placement and positions the steering wheel in a location that is compatible with the visibility and comfort requirements of a 5th percentile female driver is described. A modified chin on hub procedure is also described. Results of the modified procedures are compared to the NHTSA procedures for a number of late model vehicles.

Drawing on recent Canadian field collision investigations and crash testing using the SIDIIs dummy, the field experience and crash performance of side-mounted airbag systems are reviewed. All of the inflatable technologies tested demonstrated the ability to greatly reduce head injury potential. Further improvements to the design of inflatable head protection devices are required to better ensure they contain and protect the head of occupants seated in locations forward of the mid seat track. New moving deformable barrier designs, such as the one recently developed by the IIHS, appear to offer significant advantages over designs currently used to regulate side impact protection. Improving the level of protection against chest injury to car occupants in SUV-to-car side impacts represents a significant challenge.

This paper discusses an attempt to relate measured loading at the head neck junction of arestrained six year old ATD during a frontal crash, to the mechanism of upper cervical fracture dislocation in young children. Lap belt, lap shoulder belt anda four point restraint system are considered. The basis for the reconstructions is the fatal injury to lap-belt restrained young children seated in the rear seat of contemporary minivans. The study concludes that simple forces and bending moments measured on such an ATD may not provide a sufficient basis for judging the likelihood of such an injury. Suggestions for a more comprehensive injury analysis are made.

Dummy response and restraint configuration factors associated with a known child injury environment were investigated using a spinal-cord injury accident case, a full-scale reconstruction, and sled simulations. The work is one of several studies undertaken in association with the International Task Force on Child Restraining Systems to support the development of improved neck injury criteria and restraint systems for young children. A two-vehicle crash involving a restrained child occupant was investigated in detail and reconstructed in full-scale at the Transport Canada Motor Vehicle Test Centre using the CRABI 6-Month dummy. Vehicle damage and crush characteristics closely resembled that of the case vehicles. Dummy instrumentation included head and chest accelerometers and upper and lower neck transducers. The case occupant had been facing forward and had sustained a contusion of the spinal cord at T2 that resulted in paraplegia.

Occupants exposed to far-side crashes are those seated on the side of the vehicle opposite the struck side. This study uses the NASS/CDS 1988–98 to determine distributions of serious injuries among restrained occupants exposed to far-side crashes and the sources of the injuries. Vehicle-to-vehicle crash tests were conducted to study dummy kinematics. The NASS/CDS indicated that the head accounted for 45% of the MAIS 4+ injuries in far-side collisions and the chest/abdomen accounted for 39%. The opposite-side interior was the most frequent contact associated with driver AIS 3+ injuries (26.9%). The safety belt was second, accounting for 20.8%. Vehicle-to-vehicle side impact tests with a 60 degree crash vector indicated that different safety belt designs resulted in different amounts of head excursion for the far side Hybrid III dummy. For all three point belt systems tested, the shoulder belt was ineffective in preventing large amounts of head excursion.

Two manufacturers, Denton ATD and FTSS, currently produce the Hybrid III 5th percentile female dummy. In response to concerns raised by industry that differences in the anthropometry of the molded breasts between the two manufacturers may influence chest responses, Transport Canada conducted a comparative testing program. Thorax biofidelity tests were conducted to compare force-deflection characteristics; full-frontal, rigid-barrier tests were conducted at 40, 48 and 56 km/h to compare chest responses, and out-of-position chest on module static airbag deployment tests were conducted to compare peak chest deflections of the Denton and FTSS dummy jackets and of a prototype jacket without breasts. Differences in force-deflection characteristics were observed during biofidelity pendulum impacts of the two dummies, with much of the differences attributed to the different chest jackets.

Light duty vehicles in the US are designed to meet and exceed regulatory standards, self-imposed industry agreements and safety rating tests conducted by NHTSA and IIHS. The evolution of side impact regulation in the US from 1973 to 2015 is discussed in the paper along with two key industry agreements in 2003 affecting design of restraint systems and structures for side impact protection. A combination of all the above influences shows that vehicles in the US are being designed to more demanding and comprehensive requirements than in any other region of the world. The crash environment in the US related to side impacts was defined based on data in the nationally representative crash database NASS. Crash environment factors, including the distribution of cars, light trucks and vans (LTV’s), and medium-to-heavy vehicles (MHV’s) in the fleet, and the frequency of their interactions with one another in side impacts, were considered.