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An upgrade of EUROSID-1, the side impact dummy used in the European Union Side Impact Directive 96/EC/27, was recently developed by TNO to address dummy response issues raised by industrial and governmental bodies, in particular, the flat-top anomaly in the rib deflections. NHTSA is evaluating the ES-2 dummy, the upgraded EUROSID-1, to assess its performance in the FMVSS 214 test configuration. This paper presents results from NHTSA's testing of the ES-2 including high mass pendulum impactor tests using three proposed rib designs, biofidelity sled tests comparing the ES-2 and U.S. SID, and full-scale side impact tests.

Several thoracic and head protection side impact air bag systems (SAB) are emerging in the U.S. market and are projected to become prevalent in the fleet. These systems appear to offer superior protection in side crashes. However, concerns have been raised as to their potential for causing injury to out-of-position (OOP) occupants. This paper describes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) program for evaluation of the SAB systems for OOP occupants and provides a status report on the current research. The industry's Side Airbag Out-of- Position Injury Technical Working Group (TWG) recommended procedures for 3-year-old and 6-year-old occupants are evaluated. Additional test procedures are described to augment the TWG procedures for these occupants and 12-month- old infants.

Based on a long recognized need, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has begun to reexamine the potential for international harmonization of side impact requirements. To this end, NHTSA, as directed by the U.S. Congress, has recently submitted a report to the Congress on the agency plans for achieving harmonization of the U.S. and European side impact regulations. The first phase of this plan involves crash testing vehicles compliant to FMVSS 214 to the European Union side impact directive 96/27/EC. This paper presents the results to date of this research. The level of safety performance of the vehicles based on the injury measures of the European and U.S. side impact regulations is assessed.