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Driver oblique far-side sled impacts were simulated with three surrogates. The EuroSID side impact dummy with rib extension (ES2re), the WorldSID side impact 50th percentile male dummy (WS50M), and the Global Human Body Modeling Consortium’s 50th percentile male human body (GHBM) models. The versions of the surrogates’ models were 7.0, 7.5.1, and 5.0, respectively. Surrogates were seated in the front left driver seat in a virtual generic crossover sled environment. The Finite Element (FE) based environment consisted of a driver seat, a center console, and a passenger seat. Two restraint systems were considered for each surrogate: belt only (BO) and belt plus a generic seat-mounted far-side impact airbag (BB). Surrogates were restrained using a 3-point belt that has a digressive shoulder force load limiter, and retractor, and anchor pretensioners. The far-side airbag used was a 37-liter in volume and has two chambers.

Sled tests simulating full-frontal rigid barrier impact were conducted using the Hybrid III 5th female and the 50th male anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs). The ATDs were positioned in the outboard rear seat of a generic small car environment. Two belt configurations were used: 1) a standard belt with no load limiter or pre-tensioner and 2) a seatbelt with a 4.5 kN load-limiting retractor with a stop function and a retractor pre-tensioner (LL-PT). In the current study, the LL-PT belt system reduced the peak responses of both ATDs. Probabilities of serious-to-fatal injuries (AIS3+), based on the ATDs peak responses, were calculated using the risk curves in NHTSA’s December 2015 Request for Comments (RFC) proposing changes to the United States New Car Assessment Program (US-NCAP). Those probabilities were compared to the injury rates (IRs) observed in the field on point estimate basis.