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Nineteen sled impact tests were conducted simulating a frontal collision exposure for an unrestrained driver. The deceleration sled buck configuration utilized the passenger compartment of a late model compact passenger vehicle, a rigid driver's seat, and a custom fabricated energy-absorbing steering column and wheel assembly. Sled impact velocities ranged from 24.1 to 42.6 km/hr. The purpose of the study was to investigate the kinematic and kinetic interaction of the driver and the energy-absorbing steering assembly and their relationship to the thoracic/abdominal injuries produced. The similarities and differences between human cadaver and anthropomorphic dummy subjects were quantified.

Previous studies of human thoracic injury tolerance and mechanical response to blunt, midsternal, anteroposterior impact loading were reported by the authors at the 1970 SAE International Automobile Safety Conference and at the Fifteenth Stapp Car Crash Conference. The present paper documents additional studies from this continuing research program and provides an expansion and refinement of the data base established by the earlier work. Twenty-three additional unembalmed cadavers were tested using basically the same equipment and procedures reported previously, but for which new combinations of impactor mass and velocity were used in addition to supplementing other data already presented. Specifically, the 43 lb/11 mph (19.5 kg/4.9m/s) and 51 lb/16 mph (23.1 kg/7.2 m/s) conditions were intercrossed and data obtained at 43 lb/16 mph (19.5 kg/7.2 m/s) and 51 lb/11 mph (23.1 kg/4.9 m/s).