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Historically, the United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208 (FMVSS No. 208) has used 50th percentile male dummies seated in the mid-track position to evaluate occupant protection in frontal crashes. As a result of field investigations of air bag-related fatalities and serious injuries involving short-stature female drivers, more recent research has focused on improving crash protection using the 5th percentile female dummy in a full-forward seat position. A series of 48 kmph (30 mph) full frontal rigid barrier crash tests were conducted with belted and unbelted 5th percentile female dummies in the full-forward seat position of Model Year (MY) 1999 vehicles with redesigned air bags (certified to the FMVSS No. 208 sled test). Tests were also conducted using identical vehicles with the 50th percentile male dummies seated mid-track.

In the United States, air bags will be required in all passenger cars and light trucks under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection. Even after full implementation of driver and passenger air bags as required by FMVSS No. 208, frontal impacts will still account for up to 8,000 fatalities and 120,000 moderate to critical injuries (i.e., injuries of AIS ≥ 2) [1]. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has an ongoing research program to address these fatalities and injuries and provide a basis for the possible future upgrade of FMVSS No. 208. This effort includes developing supplementary test procedures for the evaluation of occupant injury in higher severity crashes, developing improved injury criteria including criteria for assessing injuries to additional body regions, and evaluating the injuries associated with occupant size [2, 3 and 4].

This paper reports on the status of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research program on Improved Frontal Protection. The program is in the problem determination phase. Accident analysis is being conducted to predict the injury producing crash environment for occupants with air bags, to determine appropriate test conditions, dummy sizes and injury measures, and to predict potential benefits. The interim findings are reported here; however the more complete analysis will be in a subsequent Problem Determination report to the agency. Collinear and oblique, frontal, offset crash testing, at different widths of overlap, has been conducted with a standard “bullet” car into several current model “target” cars at speeds of about 60 to 65 kmph for each car. Dummy injury measurements and structural responses provide a basis for determining the most severe impact environment. At present, the Hybrid III with additional instrumentation is the surrogate of choice.