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There have been a number of papers written about the dynamic effects of low speed front to rear impacts between motor vehicles during the last several years. This has been an important issue in the field of accident analysis and reconstruction because of the frequency with which the accidents occur and the costs of injuries allegedly associated with them. Several of these papers have discussed the importance of the coefficient of restitution in the accelerations and speed changes that the vehicles undergo in such impacts. These discussions often include data showing the measured restitution for impacts involving various bumper types and closing speeds. However, in most of these studies, the impacts are controlled so that direct bumper to bumper impacts occur. This paper will present the results of several rear impact tests with non-standard impact configurations.

There have been a number of papers written about the dynamic effects of low speed front to rear impacts between motor vehicles during the last several years. This has been an important issue in the field of accident analysis and reconstruction because of the frequency with which the accidents occur and the costs of injuries allegedly associated with them. Sideswipe impacts are another, often minor, type of motor vehicle impact that generate a significant number of injury claims. These impacts are difficult to analyze for a number of reasons. First, there have been very few studies in the literature describing the specific dynamic effects of minor sideswipe impacts on the struck vehicles and their occupants. Those that have been performed have focused on the impact of two passenger cars.

Despite efforts by industry to reduce the problem of injury in rear impacts, there continues to be a large number of such claims. This is true even in low speed impacts which result in little or no damage to the vehicles involved. Recent studies of such incidents have been described in the literature. These studies have concentrated primarily on simple bumper to bumper impacts where the front bumper of the striking vehicle contacts the rear bumper of the struck vehicle. Perhaps a more common type of rear impact is one in which the bumper of the striking vehicle rides over or under the rear bumper of the struck vehicle. The heavy truck to car rear impact is an example of an overriding impact. This paper describes several staged impacts of this type in which vehicle and occupant responses were measured using fully instrumented Hybrid III dummies or human volunteers.