Oz Dummy Plays Key Role in Crash-Safety Rulemaking

The United Nations World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations approves the first rule based upon tests using an advanced side-impact crash dummy.

Australia’s Monash University Accident Research Center says the WorldSID1 50^th-percentile adult male dummy, which closely emulates the behavior of the human body, allowed it to improve side-impact crash-test procedures through development of a Global Technical Regulation on Pole Side Impact.

The regulation, developed by the Australian government for the UN group, sets performance criteria for cars and light-commercial vehicles that its backers say will reduce deaths and injuries in side-impact crashes.

The Australian Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development says the regulation will improve protection for occupants in all side impacts, not just those with trees or poles, as the performance criteria will require safety measures such as side-curtain and thorax airbags, and better crash sensors.

It says in a statement side impacts account for more than 20% of Australian road deaths, and cites Monash data estimating the regulation will mean 608 fewer car and 67 fewer LCV front-row occupant fatalities in the country over a 30-year period.

This is the first time Australia has led development of an international vehicle regulation. Work now will proceed to incorporate the regulation into the Australian Design Rules.

The UN says in the nine countries for which data is available – Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and U.S. – more than 10,000 people died in pole or other side-impact crashes in 2009. About the same number of people was severely injured in pole-side impacts and more than 218,000 in other side impacts. Brain injuries, often severe, were the prevailing consequence of side impacts.

The Monash report says vehicle-to-vehicle collisions represent a substantial proportion of side-impact crashes, and its analysis demonstrates a continued high incidence of serious head and thorax injuries despite current test protocols.

“Based on the series of analyses conducted here, it can be stated that there is a clear need for the enhanced protection of occupants involved in side-impact crashes,” the center says. “In short, the evidence in support of a proposed pole-side-impact regulatory test is overwhelming.”

The UN group says it expects automakers will react by installing wider side airbags to increase passenger safety.

Pole-side impact tests already exist in Canada and the U.S. The UN says other countries are expected to adopt the new regulation.

The UN document says because the global technical regulation generally is more stringent than existing legislative or even voluntary standards, countries adopting the regulation should give automakers adequate lead time before full mandatory application.