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The Hybrid III family of dummies is used to estimate the response of an occupant during a crash. One recent area of interest is the response of the neck during air bag loading. The biomechanical response of the Hybrid III dummy's neck was based on inertial loading during crash events, when the dummy is restrained by a seat belt and/or seat back. Contact loading resulting from an air bag was not considered when the Hybrid III dummy was designed. This paper considers the effect of air bag loading on the 5th percentile female Hybrid III dummies. The response of the neck is presented in comparison to currently accepted biomechanical corridors. The Hybrid III dummy neck was designed with primary emphasis on appropriate flexion and extension responses using the corridors proposed by Mertz and Patrick. They formulated the mechanical performance requirements of the neck as the relationship between the moment at the occipital condyles and the rotation of the head relative to the torso.

The automotive environment, within which original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) design, develop, and produce safety initiatives is fluid in light of regulatory and non-regulatory safety initiatives, and other competitive market realities. As current passive safety systems are being refined and expanded to include the general population, active safety systems covering accident avoidance are presenting a “new frontier” for engineers to explore. Other competitive hurdles include cost, weight, quality, and customer acceptance criteria. To effectively address this complexity, OEM's must completely reinvent safety system design and development processes. Specifically this paper outlines safety system design and development roadblocks encountered due to organizational structure, data analysis bias, and the need for component system integration.