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The program objective was to develop an effective inflatable occupant restraint system for unbelted rear seat occupants of motor vehicles. An extensive series of developmental and evaluative impact sled tests included variations in occupant position and size using a standard-size American sedan as the basic vehicle for incorporation of the passive restraint. The restraint system includes a crushable honeycomb knee bar to limit femur loads and to control the head and upper torso trajectory of the unbelted occupants. At speeds below which the airbag deploys, protection is provided by energy-absorbing padding on a head bar as well as on the knee bar. For high-speed crashes, the airbag deploys, and the bag loads are carried out through the head bar and the knee bar support plate. Nondeployed protection is provided for crash speed pulses up to approximately 20 mph in order to satisfy multiple impact considerations, and nonvented side bags are used for oblique impact protection.

An experimental program is discussed wherein fresh, unembalmed cadavers and anthropomorphic test dummies (ATD's) were exposed to identical crash situations. Results include tests conducted on the Calspan HYGE acceleration sled and full-scale car crash tests using belt restraint systems and air bag systems. Cadaver test data obtained include head and chest triaxial accelerations from externally mounted sensors, chest deflections and belt loads. Cadaver test data also include arterial and lung pressure measurements as well as X-ray and gross necropsy evaluations. Dummy test data include normally measured internal triaxial head and chest accelerations. High-speed movie coverage produced cadaver and dummy kinematic results. AT THIS TIME there exists some question in the automotive safety community as to the proper role cadaver experiments can play in the design, development and evaluation of safety related vehicle systems.

Head-neck injuries occur frequently in pedestrian and occupant automotive accidents even at relatively low speeds. This paper describes the results of laboratory impact experiments using human cadavers in pedestrian/vehicle impacts and lateral-to-medial head impacts at well-known, controlled speeds. Cerebral trauma, with and without skull fracture, is discussed as a function of impact configuration and velocity. Cervical spine and cord injuries are also discussed with regard to the same parameters. Data presented include impactor mass and velocity, head acceleration measurements, complete autopsy and dissection results, and the clinical evaluation of the effect on a person of the observed trauma. Eighteen cadavers have been exposed to lateral-to-medial head impacts by two mechanisms.

Axial impacts were performed on the right and left femurs of nine unembalmed human cadavers. Similar impacts were performed on the femurs of a Hybrid in dummy. The cadaver subjects had a femur load cell implanted in the right femur to measure internal axial force. Injuries in the right and left knee-thigh-hip complex of each human subject were similar indicating that the load cell did not affect the structural response. Comparisons were made between cadaver and dummy applied and internal force and applied and internal impulse. Results indicated that the dummy was much stiffer than the cadaver and produced much higher applied and internal forces. The applied and internal impulses of the cadavers and the dummy were similar and the dummy impulse appears to be a promising indicator of injury in cadavers.