Limitations of the European barrier crash testing regulation relating to occupant safety

Publication date: December 2019Source: Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 133Author(s): Jasper Chell, Carola Elea Brandani, Stefano Fraschetti, Joe Chakraverty, Valentina CamomillaAbstractThe safety of roadside restraint systems in Europe is ensured by the EN 1317 regulation. The ability of the barrier to mitigate injury to the occupants of vehicles is tested according to two occupant injury metrics: Acceleration Severity Index (ASI) and Theoretical Head Impact Velocity (THIV). Both metrics aim to predict occupant head injury from vehicle kinematics, despite the potential to easily measure actual head kinematics from instrumented Anthropomorphic Test Dummies, a non-instrumented version of which is already required according to the regulation. Retrospective data provided by AISICO S.r.l. for 33 certificated barrier tests, where acceleration of the dummy’s head had also been recorded, were re-analysed. ASI and THIV were compared with Head Injury Criterion (HIC15) and Neck injury Criterion (Nij), as well as corresponding Real Head Impact Velocity (RHIV) values. Three barriers presented HIC15 values above the threshold used in crashworthiness testing, two of which corresponded to fatal injury according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale. One barrier presented an Nij value corresponding to a 30% risk of neck injury. RHIV values were above the regulation threshold in 15% of tests, but were not significantly different from the corresponding THIV values. It was concluded that vehi...
Source: Accident Analysis and Prevention - Category: Accident Prevention Source Type: research