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This paper describes impact kinematics and injury values of Hybrid III AM50, THOR AM50 and THUMS AM50 in simulated oblique frontal impact conditions. A comparison was made among them in driver and passenger seat positions of a midsize sedan car finite element (FE) model. The simulation results indicated that the impact kinematics of THOR was close to that of THUMS compared to that of the Hybrid III. Both THOR and THUMS showed z-axis rotation of the rib cage, while Hybrid III did not. It was considered that the rib cage rotation was due primarily to the oblique impact but was allowed by flexibility of the lumbar spine in THOR and THUMS. Lateral head displacement observed in both THOR and THUMS was mostly induced by that rotation in both driver seat and passenger seat positions. The BrIC, thorax and abdominal injury values were close to each other between THOR and THUMS, while HIC15 and Acetabulum force values were different.

Toyota Safety Sense is a safety system package developed to help drivers avoid accident types with a high frequency of occurrence. This paper deals with pre-collision system which forms the core of Toyota Safety Sense, especially Toyota Safety Sense P which uses a combined sensor configuration consisting of a monocular camera paired with millimeter wave radar, in order to achieve both high recognition performance and reliability. The use of a wide-angle monocular camera, millimeter wave radar integrated in the front grill emblem, and a collision determination algorithm for pedestrian targets enabled the development of a pre-collision system comprising detection capability of crossing pedestrians. Toyota has developed warning and pre-collision brake assist for driver to assist in avoiding a collision effectively; In addition, Pre-collision brake has achieved high level of performance for the drivers who cannot avoid a collision.

When a car collides against a pole-like obstacle, the deformation pattern of the vehicle body-side tends to extend to its upper region. A possible consequence is an increase of loading to the occupant thorax. Many studies have been conducted to understand human thoracic responses to lateral loading, and injury criteria have been developed based on the results. However, injury mechanisms, especially those of internal organs, are not well understood. A human body FE model was used in this study to simulate occupant kinematics in a pole side impact. Internal organ parts were introduced into the torso model, including their geometric features, material properties and connections with other tissues. The mechanical responses of the model were validated against PMHS data in the literature. Although injury criterion for each organ has not been established, pressure level and its changes can be estimated from the organ models.

A technique for induction-hardening local portions of vehicle body reinforcements press-formed of thin sheet steel has been developed, with the aim of ensuring occupant safety in a side collision. This technique for increasing the tensile strength of sheet steel was practically applied to the front floor cross member and center pillar reinforcement. Owing to this method, the weight of body reinforcements can be decreased. New induction-hardening systems have also been developed for the present technique. One is an apparatus which allows induction-hardening a part with a three-dimensionally curved surface. Another is a straightening quench technique used to retain the same dimensional accuracy as the original press-formed part.

Event Data Recorders (EDRs) record valuable data in estimating the occupant injury severity after a crash. Advanced Automatic Collision Notification (AACN) with the use of EDR data will determine the potential extent of injuries to those involved in motor vehicle accidents. In order to obtain basic information in injury estimation using EDR data, frontal collisions for 29 vehicles equipped with EDRs were analyzed as a pilot study by retrieving the EDR data from the accident vehicles and collecting the occupant injury data from the database of an insurance company. As a result, the severity of occupant injury was closely related to the Delta V recorded on an EDR. However, there were several cases in which the predicted injury level was overestimated or underestimated by the Delta V. Therefore, caution is required when predicting the level of injury in frontal collisions based upon the Delta V alone.

An event data recorder (EDR) records the vehicle status at the timing of an accident. Toyota Motor Corporation began the sequential introduction of EDRs onto its vehicles from August 2000. Currently, about 70% of all Toyota’s vehicles in North America are equipped with an EDR, which is more than the average rate of EDR installation in vehicles in North America (around 50%). The U.S. has introduced regulations for EDRs. Toyota regards these as minimum requirements and also records additional data for accident analysis, including the following: (1) pre-crash data, (2) side crash data, (3) rollover data, (4) pedestrian protection pop-up hood (PUH) data, and (5) vehicle control history (VCH) data from a non-crash triggered recording system. The regulations stipulate that EDR data retrieval must be possible using a commercially available tool. The developed system uses the Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) tool manufactured by Bosch.

A few reports suggest differences in injury outcomes between cadaver tests and real-world accidents under almost similar conditions. This study hypothesized that muscle activity could primarily cause the differences, and then developed a human body finite element (FE) model with individual muscles. Each muscle was modeled as a hybrid model of bar elements with active properties and solid elements with passive properties. The model without muscle activation was firstly validated against five series of cadaver test data on impact responses in the anterior-posterior direction. The model with muscle activation levels estimated based on electromyography (EMG) data was secondly validated against four series of volunteer test data on bracing effects for stiffness and thickness of an upper arm muscle, and braced driver's responses under a static environment and a brake deceleration.

This paper describes the development of dummy FE models to be used for side impact simulations. The precise geometries of the ES-2re dummy and the SID-IIs dummy were measured at a pitch of 1.0 mm using X-ray CT scan. The material properties and the mechanical responses of the components were measured in static and dynamic tests and were used for the model validation. The models were further validated to US-NCAP side impact requirements. Good correlation was seen for both response time history, and to peak deformation values. It is shown that modeling the precise dummy internal structure in addition to the external geometry and applying accurate material properties enabled simulation of deformation kinematics and load transfer inside the dummies. As a result, it was possible to accurately simulate the injury value time histories in an actual test, and understand the mechanisms causing changes to the loading.

Due to the relative high speed and short distance between the door and occupant, side impact presents a challenging task when analyzing the input force from the door to the occupant. The new FMVSS214 Final Rule in 2007 and the new NCAP in 2008 mandated the use of a SID-IIs in the oblique pole impact test and in the rear seat during an MDB side impact test. Therefore, a high-precision measurement and calculation of the three-dimensional dummy kinematics, as well as the interaction of force inside the dummy (internal force) and force exerted from outside the dummy (external force) will help provide efficient evaluation of design requirements for the door trim and supplemental restraint systems that meet legally mandated requirements.

Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) is a system designed to help drivers when skidding or unstable vehicle behavior is about to occur. We have studied the characteristics of VSC in reducing accidents by analyzing accident data statistics in Japan. The results indicate that VSC is effective in reducing single car accidents and head-on collisions with other automobiles. In these accidents, the analysis showed that VSC may be more helpful in reducing a larger number of accidents in the higher speed range where vehicle dynamics plays a greater part. It also showed that VSC may contribute to reducing accidents that result from unstable vehicle behavior. VSC demonstrated more effectiveness in reducing accidents involving lateral & rear impacts than those of frontal impacts, and in reducing accidents on wet & snowy/icy roads than those on dry roads.

Approximately 20% of traffic fatalities in United States 2012 were caused by rollover accidents. Mostly injured parts were head, chest, backbone and arms. In order to clarify the injury mechanism of rollover accidents, kinematics of six kinds of Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD) and Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) in the rolling compartment, whose body size is 50th percentile male (AM50), were researched by Zhang et al.(2014) using rollover buck testing system. It was clarified from the research that flexibility of the backbone and thoracic vertebra affected to occupant’s kinematics. On the other hand, the kinematics research of body size except AM50 will be needed in order to decrease traffic fatalities. There were few reports about the researches of occupant kinematics using FE models of body sizes except AM50.

Traffic accidents in the United States were analyzed using FARS and NASS data. When classified according to vehicle body type and collision type, fatalities were most common in the case of (1) passenger car to passenger car frontal impacts, (2) passenger car to passenger car side impacts, (3) passenger car to LTV side impacts, (4) passenger car to truck frontal impacts, and (5) passenger car to LTV frontal impacts. Among these collisions, it was clearly confirmed that the occupants of a passenger car have a strong tendency to suffer injury when “the passenger car has a frontal impact with a heavier passenger car,” “the passenger car has a frontal impact with an LTV/SUV, truck,” and “the passenger car is side impacted by an LTV/SUV,” or the like. These examples should be recognized as clear cases of incompatibility. This paper will describe an approach which aim at improving compatibility. However, around 60% of occupants who suffer fatal injuries are not wearing a seat belt.

Posterior translation of the tibia with respect to the femur can stretch the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). Fifteen millimeters of relative displacement between the femur and tibia is known as the Injury Assessment Reference Value (IARV) for the PCL injury. Since the anterior protuberance of the tibial plateau can be the first site of contact when the knee is flexed, the knee bolster is generally designed with an inclined surface so as not to directly load the projection in frontal crashes. It should be noted, however, that the initial flexion angle of the occupant knee can vary among individuals and the knee flexion angle can change due to the occupant motion. The behavior of the tibial protuberance related to the knee flexion angle has not been described yet. The instantaneous angle of the knee joint at the timing of restraining the knee should be known to manage the geometry and functions of knee restraint devices.

The WorldSID dummy can be equipped with both a pubic and a sacroiliac joint (S-I joint) loadcell. Although a pubic force criterion and the associated injury risk curve are currently available and used in regulation (ECE95, FMVSS214), as of today injury mechanisms, injury criteria, and injury assessment reference values are not available for the sacroiliac joint itself. The aim of this study was to investigate the sacroiliac joint injury mechanism. Three configurations were identified from full-scale car crashes conducted with the WorldSID 50th percentile male where the force passing through the pubis in all three tests was approximately 1500 N while the sacroiliac Fy / Mx peak values were 4500 N / 50 Nm, 2400 N / 130 Nm, and 5300 N / 150 Nm, respectively. These tests were reproduced using a 150 kg guided probe impacting Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) at 8 m/s, 5.4 m/s and 7.5 m/s.