The prediction of car driver size and position to enhance safety in crashes

Abstract

The positions which car drivers adopt when driving will depend on their anthropometric characteristics, the range and type of adjustment available from the vehicle package and their preferred driving posture. The design and testing of systems to protect occupants in car crashes assumes that the size and position of the driver is ‘normal’ or ‘average’, although there is some accommodation for adjustability. If, however, the occupant protection system had information on the driver's chosen seat position, on whether the driver was particularly large or small and on whether the driver was sitting close to or further from the steering wheel, in a crash the system could tailor its performance and enhance the protection offered. This study investigated whether it was possible to predict the physical characteristics of the driver and the driver's position in relation to the steering wheel, from data that could be collected by sensors in the seat and seat mounting. In order to do this, anthropometric characteristics of drivers and their usual seated position in their own vehicle were measured and analyses were undertaken to identify whether there were any relationships between the driver-related and the vehicle-related measures. The results showed that it was possible to predict drivers' head and chest positions relative to injury-producing features of the vehicle such as the steering wheel (and hence the airbag) and to predict some physical dimensions of drivers.