Research of the occupant protection in Full frontal rigid barrier impact test and Frontal offset deformable barrier impact test

Abstract

Approximately a third of the traffic accident fatalities in Japan are caused as a result of accidents while a person is in a vehicle. Collision from the frontal direction accounts for 53 percent, a much higher percentage than accidents involving collisions from other directions. In Japan, laws concerning collision from the front direction are defined in the Safety Regulations: Full frontal rigid barrier impact test and Frontal offset deformable barrier impact test. We focused on these two tests and studied over 50 cases to research the degree of injury value during tests at the time of certification. In Full frontal rigid barrier impact test, we observed little difference between the average injury values for the driver and passenger. In Frontal offset deformable barrier impact test, the values were higher for the driver than the passenger when comparing the average injury values of the head and chest. In Full frontal rigid barrier impact test and Frontal offset deformable barrier impact test, the average chest injury value was higher compared with the average head injury value. For head injury criterion, the average value for Full frontal rigid barrier impact test was higher compared with the average value in Frontal offset deformable barrier impact test. For both the Full frontal rigid barrier impact test and the Frontal offset deformable barrier impact test, we observed that the heavier the test vehicle weight, the higher the decrease in the injury value.