Vehicle Safety Standards Research Articles

International safety standards for high-performance marine vehicles – the DSC Code, HSC Codes and the WIG Craft Guidelines

International acceptance of high-performance marine vehicles for commercial operations has been facilitated by the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) development of a series of safety standards for such craft, commencing with the Code of Safety for Dynamically Supported Craft of1977 and continuing to the present day. The author, as the Australian delegate, has led many of the IMO working and correspondence groups that have carried out much of this work, and been closely associated with the remainder. This paper provides an overview of this series of standards, including notable features of their development. It covers up to and including the 2006 amendments to the 2000 High-Speed Craft Code for relatively conventional high-speed vessels, and the WIG Craft Interim Guidelines and the associated principles and recommendations for operating personnel of such high-speed craft of the future.

Effects of Graduated Driver Licensing on Fatalities in 16-Year-Olds

To the Editor.—Motor vehicle crashes are the most common cause of death among youth populations in developed countries in the world.1 Among initiatives developed to reduce motor vehicle crash–related injuries, deaths, and traffic convictions among youth, graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws have demonstrated effectiveness. In particular, a recent retrospective study by Chen et al2 indicated that GDL program components leading to reduced motor vehicle crash fatalities were GDL programs that include age requirements and ≥3 months of waiting before the intermediate stage, nighttime driving restriction, and either ≥30 hours of supervised driving or passenger restriction.Although Chen et al2 provided a valuable contribution to the evidence base, they seem to have overlooked important variables that could affect their outcome (motor vehicle crash fatality), including vehicle miles traveled, vehicle density (number of registered motor vehicles divided by length of roads), speed-limit regulations, alcohol-impaired–driving laws (zero tolerance laws, minimum drinking-age laws), and economic factors (rate of unemployment, real per-capita income, etc). When a relevant variable is omitted from a regression model, the resulting estimators of effect in the final model are biased because they share the variance that would have been attributed to the excluded variable. All factors need to be controlled for in a study of traffic crashes, and results of a study concentrating on a single program (ie, GDL) are possibly misleading. GDL programs cannot be considered to be effective without accounting for confounding in statistical analysis by other laws or programs that also seek to reduce motor vehicle crashes among youth.Driving laws related to alcohol impairment are a particularly important confounder that could also be responsible for reductions in motor vehicle crash injuries and fatalities among youth. Zero tolerance laws, which make it illegal in every state for drivers younger than 21 to drive after any drinking, have significantly contributed to declines in alcohol-related traffic fatalities among people younger than 21. In 1995, the US Congress passed a law that requires states to adopt zero tolerance laws for drivers younger than 21. By 1998, all states had passed laws that made it illegal for any driver younger than 21 to have a positive blood alcohol content (BAC). Voas et al3 used data on all drivers younger than 21 involved in fatal crashes in the United States from 1982 through 1997. Quarterly ratios of BAC-positive to BAC-negative drivers in each of the 50 states were analyzed in a pooled cross-sectional time-series approach. After accounting for differences among the 50 states in various background factors, changes in economic and demographic factors within states over time, and the effects of other related laws, results indicated a significant 24.4% reduction in alcohol-positive drivers younger than 21 who were involved in fatal crashes associated with the zero tolerance laws. Similar results were shown by another systematic review4; therefore, this policy seems to have been significantly effective in reducing fatal crashes involving youth drivers.5,6In addition to zero tolerance laws, other drinking-and-driving laws were also passed in the United States between 1995 and 2005. Many states now revoke or suspend the licenses of drunken-driving offenders who are under the legal age. Characteristics of crashes that take place with alcohol-impaired youth drivers include speeding disproportionately, lack of restraint use, and driving older cars that are in poor repair. Primary and secondary seat belt–enforcement laws, increased speeding restrictions, and improved safety standards for vehicles and highway construction may all help reduce fatal crashes among young drivers. For instance, citizen and community-based advocacy groups have played important prevention roles in areas such as youth drinking and driving and enhancement of youth restraint use.7Further understanding of the effect of these factors in combination with GDL laws should help in the study and implementation of best practices to reduce youth-involved traffic crashes worldwide. Methodologically sound research is needed to evaluate GDL systems and identify which GDL elements produce the greatest crash reductions. To the extent possible, researchers should seek to use appropriate statistical methods that facilitate comparisons across jurisdictions, acknowledging the considerable variation in GDL laws and effects of non-GDL laws and systems across different jurisdictions.

Lateral impact injuries with side airbag deployments—A descriptive study

The present study was designed to provide descriptive data on side impact injuries in vehicles equipped with side airbags using the United States National Automotive Sampling System (NASS). The database was queried with the constraint that all vehicles must adhere to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards FMVSS 214, injured occupants be in the front outboard seats with no rollovers or ejections, and side impacts airbags be deployed in lateral crashes. Out of the 7812 crashes in the 1997–2004 weighted NASS files, AIS ≥ 2 level injuries occurred to 5071 occupants. There were 3828 cases of torso-only airbags, 955 cases of torso–head bag combination, and 288 inflatable tubular structure/curtain systems. Side airbags were not attributed to be the cause of head or chest injury to any occupant at this level of severity. The predominance of torso-only airbags followed by torso–head airbag combination reflected vehicle model years and changing technology. Head and chest injuries were coupled for the vast majority of occupants with injuries to more than one body region. Comparing literature data for side impacts without side airbag deployments, the presence of a side airbag decreased AIS = 2 head, chest, and extremity injuries when examining raw data incidence rates. Although this is the first study to adopt strict inclusion–exclusion criteria for side crashes with side airbag deployments, future studies are needed to assess side airbag efficacy using datasets such as matched-pair occupants in side impacts.

Determination of the Crush Stiffness Coefficients of a Typical Aftermarket Frontal Protective Guard Used in Light Trucks and Vans with Comparisons between Guard Stiffness and Frontal Vehicle Crush Coefficients

Crush stiffness coefficients were determined for a typical I-beam constructed frontal grill guard used in the aftermarket on vehicles classified as light trucks or vans. These crush coefficients were determined by virtual impacts of a typical guard construction into a rigid barrier using finite element analysis (FEA) methods and collision stiffness computations. It was found that the addition of a frontal protection guard is capable of significantly changing the frontal stiffness of the vehicle to which it is attached. The federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSSs) require vehicles to give a certain crash response in order to protect occupants. Engineers have designed features such as frontal and rear crash zones to dissipate crash energies to meet the FMVSS requirements. Changing the stiffness of the vehicle by the addition of a frontal guard may alter the crash response and airbag deployment of the vehicle to which it is attached, along with the crash response of the guard-struck vehicle. The determination of the crush stiffness coefficients for a frontal guard will allow a comparison with the engineered frontal stiffness of vehicles in order to start the examination of the effect of frontal guard stiffness on crashworthiness of the collision partners. In addition, the determination of these coefficients will allow accident reconstructionists to assess the change in velocity of vehicles involved in collisions with frontal guards from guard crush damage.

Flexion and extension structural properties and strengths for male cervical spine segments

New vehicle safety standards are designed to limit the amount of neck tension and extension seen by out-of-position motor vehicle occupants during airbag deployments. The criteria used to assess airbag injury risk are currently based on volunteer data and animal studies due to a lack of bending tolerance data for the adult cervical spine. This study provides quantitative data on the flexion–extension bending properties and strength on the male cervical spine, and tests the hypothesis that the male is stronger than the female in pure bending. An additional objective is to determine if there are significant differences in stiffness and strength between the male upper and lower cervical spine. Pure-moment flexibility and failure testing was conducted on 41 male spinal segments (O–C2, C4–C5, C6–C7) in a pure-moment test frame and the results were compared with a previous study of females. Failures were conducted at approximately 90 N-m/s. In extension, the male upper cervical spine (O–C2) fails at a moment of 49.5 (s.d. 17.6) N-m and at an angle of 42.4° (s.d. 8.0°). In flexion, the mean moment at failure is 39.0 (s.d. 6.3°) N-m and an angle of 58.7° (s.d. 5.1°). The difference in strength between flexion and extension is not statistically significant. The difference in the angles is statistically significant. The upper cervical spine was significantly stronger than the lower cervical spine in both flexion and extension. The male upper cervical spine was significantly stiffer than the female and significantly stronger than the female in flexion. Odontoid fractures were the most common injury produced in extension, suggesting a tensile mechanism due to tensile loads in the odontoid ligamentous complex.

The role of the U.S National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in automotive electronics reliability and safety assessment

Since 1970, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been responsible for setting and monitoring traffic and safety standards for all motor vehicles on U.S. roads. Authorized by the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, the agency can investigate and recall any vehicle that contains a safety-related defect or is in violation of a federal motor vehicle safety standard. This paper describes the role of the NHTSA in assessing automotive electronics reliability and safety. We discuss the definition of "safety defect," and how it has been applied. In a number of defect investigations, automakers had initially led the NHTSA to believe that their vehicles were safe and complied with safety standards, although they contained potentially fatal defects. As a result, NHTSA had difficulty in taking effective action against rollovers, stalling problems, and fire hazards in some of the nation's popular vehicles, even though evidence pointed to a safety defect. This article then describes a juridical process that may improve road safety. Examples are given as to how regulations could be manipulated to stymie federal investigations, followed by an explanation of how the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act, passed in 2000, could facilitate more effective investigations. Finally, we discuss the economics of defect recalls, and provide some recommendations.

Passenger-side rear-view mirrors: driver behavior and safety

Passenger-side rear-view mirrors (PRMs) have been standard equipment on motor vehicles sold in the US for many years, although they are not required by the federal motor vehicle safety standards. Numerous studies documented both the apparent need for PRMs (to overcome visual obstructions) and their apparent value (by increasing visual access to the passenger-side rear). In addition, surveys of drivers have found a general appreciation of the importance of sampling visual information from the rear. Very little can be found, however, regarding the actual safety benefit of PRMs. A review of the research literature and several initial studies (driver observation and accident-data analysis), suggest that PRMs may not be associated with any substantial accident prevention, perhaps because they are not consistently used. Implications and research directions will be discussed. Relevance to Industry PRMs should have been a success story, having been carefully developed through research to provide important information for safe driving. The apparent failure of PRMs to reduce accident rates in practice illustrates a potential problem with designing and deploying safety features or devices without empirical assessment of normal user behavior.

The New Car Assessment Program: Does It Predict the Relative Safety of Vehicles in Actual Crashes?

Federal motor vehicle safety standards are based on crash test dummy analyses that estimate the relative risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and severe thoracic injury (STI) by quantifying head (Head Injury Criterion [HIC]) and chest (Chest Gravity Score [CGS]) acceleration. The New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) combines these probabilities to yield the vehicle's five-star rating. The validity of the NCAP system as it relates to an actual motor vehicle crash (MVC) remains undetermined. We therefore sought to determine whether HIC and CGS accurately predict TBI and STI in actual crashes, and compared the NCAP five-star rating system to the rates of TBI and/or STI in actual MVCs. We analyzed frontal crashes with restrained drivers from the 1994 to 1998 National Automotive Sampling System. The relationship of HIC and CGS to the probabilities of TBI and STI derived from crash tests were respectively compared with the HIC-TBI and CGS-STI risk relationships observed in actual crashes while controlling for covariates. Receiver operating characteristic curves determined the sensitivity and specificity of HIC and CGS as predictors of TBI and STI, respectively. Estimates of the likelihood of TBI and/or STI (in actual MVCs) were compared with the expected probabilities of TBI and STI (determined by crash test analysis), as they relate to NCAP ratings. The crash tests overestimate TBI likelihood at HIC scores >800 and underestimate it at scores <500. STI likelihood is overestimated when CGS exceeds 40 g. Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated poor sensitivity and specificity of HIC and CGS in predicting injury. The actual MVC injury probability estimates did not vary between vehicles of different NCAP rating. HIC and CGS are poor predictors of TBI and STI in actual MVCs. The NCAP five-star rating system is unable to differentiate vehicles of varying crashworthiness in actual MVCs. More sensitive parameters need to be developed and incorporated into vehicle crash safety testing to provide consumers and automotive manufacturers with useful tools with which to measure vehicle safety.

Pedestrian crashes: higher injury severity and mortality rate for light truck vehicles compared with passenger vehicles

Introduction: During the last two decades changes in vehicle design and increase in the number of the light truck vehicles (LTVs) and vans have led to changes in pedestrian injury...

Morphological capacitive sensors for air bag applications

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards No. 208 includes directives rendering the morphological estimation of passengers mandatory for advanced air bag systems. The dynamic automatic suppression system uses both the morphological and positional information about the passenger to allow or prevent air bag deployment. Various solutions have been proposed to obtain these information by using capacitive sensors. This paper presents a method, that makes possible use of such sensors in the car industry by correcting their responses from these perturbing parameters.

Relationship between age and lower extremity fractures in frontal motor vehicle collisions.

Older adults (aged > or = 65 years) represent the single fastest growing segment of the United States population and will comprise one in five Americans during the third decade of this century. As this population segment rapidly expands, lower extremity fractures (LE Fx) and their associated disability will become a greater public health concern. The purpose of this study was to quantify the risk for LE Fx from motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) according to age. The 1995 to 2000 National Automotive Sampling System data files were used. Study entry was limited to front-seat occupants involved in frontal MVCs. Risk ratios for LE Fx and age were adjusted for gender, driver versus passenger, seat belt use, airbag deployment, delta-V, intrusion, and vehicle type. Beginning in the fourth decade, there was a trend of higher relative risk for LE Fx with age that reached statistical significance in the seventh decade of life. This study documented an increased risk of LE Fx in older MVC occupants. Efforts to prevent these disabling injuries and to better protect occupants' lower extremities in MVCs should include improved vehicle design and reevaluation of the existing federal motor vehicle safety standards.

How would setting policy priorities according to cost–benefit analyses affect the provision of road safety?

This paper analyses how setting priorities for road safety strictly according to cost–benefit analysis would affect the provision of road safety in Norway and Sweden. The paper is based on recent analyses of the efficiency of road safety policies in these two countries. The argument sometimes made by critics of cost–benefit analysis, that only a few road safety measures are cost-effective (have benefits greater than costs), is not supported. Cost-effective road safety policies could prevent between 50 and 60% of the current number of road accident fatalities in both Norway and Sweden, if pursued consistently during a period of 10 years (2002–2011). If current policies are continued, only about 10–15% of the current number of road accident fatalities are likely to be prevented during the next 10 years. A number of sources of inefficiency in road safety policy are identified. A source of inefficiency is anything that prevents policy priorities from being set according to cost–benefit analysis. These include: (a) lack of power, which means that national governments do not have the formal authority to introduce a certain road safety measure, in Europe, this applies to new vehicle safety standards, which are passed almost exclusively by the European Union; (b) the existence of social dilemmas, which means that measures that are cost-effective from a societal point of view are not so from the point of view of individual road users; (c) priority given to other policy objectives, in particular regional development. Scarcity of resources, which obtains when public budgets have to be increased to make room for all cost-effective measures, was not found to be a constraint. All cost-effective measures can be funded within current budgets, provided the use of inefficient measures ceases.

Fatal occupational injuries in the North Carolina construction industry, 1978-1994.

Occupational injury is a major public health problem and the cause of high rates of fatalities. The construction industry is one of the leading industries for on-the-job fatalities. The North Carolina Medical Examiner's system was used to identify all fatal unintentional injuries that occurred on the job in the state's construction industry between 1978 and 1994. The populations at risk were estimated from the 1980 and 1990 U.S. censuses. There were 525 identified deaths. All except two decedents were male, and the majority were Caucasian (79.2%). The mean age of decedents was 39 years. Death rates were higher among older workers. The crude fatality rate for the overall study period was 15.4 per 100,000 worker-years, with higher rates found among African-Americans (22.9) than among Caucasians (14.5). Occupations within the industry with the highest rates were laborers (49.5), truck drivers (43.2), operating engineers (37.2), roofers (32.8), and electricians (29.0). Falls (26.7%), electrocutions (20.4%), and motor vehicle accidents (18.9%) were found to be the leading causes of death. These findings suggest a need for continued attention to the hazards of heights and electric currents and a need for occupational safety standards for motor vehicles. This study also suggests that the hazards facing construction laborers require further investigation.

Challenges in motor vehicle safety.

Reductions in motor vehicle injury and death represent a major public health success. Since the advent of the federal program in highway safety in 1966, motor vehicle deaths have dropped dramatically, not only in rates per miles driven but also in absolute numbers. Key to this success has been the broad-based comprehensive approach promoted by the program's first administrator, a public health physician. The federal program provided leadership and coordination that leveraged national, state, and local programs to bring about safer vehicles, improved traffic records, more effective enforcement, enormously improved emergency medical services, more responsible judicial systems, and many other accomplishments. Although progress has been made on many fronts, major areas addressed here include federal motor vehicle safety standards, alcohol safety programs, occupant restraint laws and usage, and speed limits. The achievements in motor vehicle safety provide a model for other injury control efforts.

Development of a wheelchair occupant injury risk assessment method and its application in the investigation of wheelchair securement point influence on frontal crash safety

To promote proper wheelchair securement in transportation, the proposed ANSI/RESNA Standard on Wheelchairs Used as Seats in Motor Vehicles will require that all transit wheelchairs be equipped with four securement points compatible with strap-type tiedowns. Through computer simulations, the location of these securement points has been found to influence wheelchair user response to a frontal crash. This study develops and employs an injury risk assessment method to compare the crashworthiness of various securement point configurations. The comparative injury risk assessment method is designed to predict the risk associated with internalized crash forces, as well as risk associated with secondary occupant impact with the vehicle interior. Injury criteria established by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and General Motors, along with excursion limitations set by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J2249 Wheelchair Tiedowns and Occupant Restraint Systems (WTORS) Standard were used as benchmarks for the risk assessment method. The simulation model subjected a secured commercial powerbase wheelchair with a seated 50th percentile male Hybrid III test dummy to a 20 g/30 mph crash. The occupant was restrained using pelvic and shoulder belts, and the wheelchair was secured with four strap-type tiedowns. Results indicated that securement points located 1.5 in to 2.5 in above the evaluated wheelchair's center of gravity provide the most effective occupant protection.

Roof-Crush Strength Improvement Using Rigid Polyurethane Foam

Recent bending tests show the effectiveness of rigid, polyurethane foam in improving the strength of automotive body structures. By using foam, it is possible to reduce pillar sections, and to reduce thicknesses or eliminate reinforcements inside the pillars, and thereby offset the mass increase due to the foam filling. Further tests showed that utilizing the foam filling in a B-pillar to reduce section size can save ~20 mm that could be utilized to add energy absorbing structures in order to meet the new interior head impact requirements specified by the federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) 201 Head Impact Protection upgrade.

Polyurethane: The Material of Choice for Occupant Protection and Energy Management

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is mandated to promote improvements in automotive occupant protection by specifying vehicle crash-worthiness regulations in terms of forces and accelerations measured during test crashes. A primary focus of these Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) has been in the area of energy-management during the "second collision"—the collision between the occupant and the automotive interior. As relevant to energy-absorbing materials, regulations are continuously being revised and upgraded: FMVSS 201, head impact [HIC(d)] for pillars, roof rails, visors and instrument panels; FMVSS 208, passive restraint for head, upper-thorax and upper-leg protection; FMVSS 213, for child safety seats; FMVSS 214, for side impact protection; and FMVSS 218, for motorcycle helmets. In addition, manufacturers need to be concerned about the potential product liability for enhanced injuries due to the "second collision" when superior alternate materials are technologically available and commercially practical. As a result of these demands to improve occupant protection through energy-management materials, it was necessary to examine those that may find use in these applications, including: expanded polypropylene (EPP), expanded polystyrene (EPS), expanded polyphenylene oxide/polystyrene (EPPE/PS), and polyurethanes (PU). The areas of examination and analysis are dynamic impact and static compression testing; -physical properties; flammability; dimensional stability and energy-absorption as a function of temperature; and chemical resistance. The advantages of polyurethane technology are in its versatility, diversity and adaptability to customer and application needs. Energy-absorbing polyurethanes have properties (e.g., low weight, moldability, relative temperature insensitivity) which allow the automobile manufacturers greater design flexibility at lower cost. Whereas thermoplastics have the one-dimensional ability to vary energy-absorption profiles only through density adjustment, polyurethanes can be customized to meet an infinite variety of energyabsorption profiles and performance characteristics through adjustments in either density and/or polymer structure. Energy-management polyurethanes can be produced as: rigid foams, friable or crushable; recoverable semi-rigid foams; or visco-elastic foams. The object of this paper is to compare the physical properties and impact performance characteristics of EPP, EPS, EPPE/PS, and rigid and recoverable polyurethane foams. The results will show that energy-management polyurethane foams have performance properties which make them particularly suitable for occupant protection applications.

Development and Intermediate Findings of a Level III Heavy-Truck Collision Study

The development, implementation, and intermediate results of a Level III (on-scene) study of heavy freight vehicle collisions are presented. The University of New Brunswick’s Accident Research Team, under contract with Transport Canada, has conducted over 50 in-depth investigations over a 3-year period. Although the present findings are based on a relatively small sample, a number of common, and perhaps surprising issues have been identified. Many of the cases highlight the need for increased safety regulations targeted at the design and operation of these vehicles and the infrastructure over which they operate. The most common problems identified include the propensity of heavy trucks to roll over, load security, and inadequate crash protection afforded to the occupant compartment. The issues related to the establishment of an intense investigation protocol are discussed in this paper, as are the findings of the investigations that have occurred over a 3-year period. Recommendations are presented that are directed toward the refinement of a Level III protocol for further heavy-vehicle investigations. In addition, changes are proposed to existing Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards as they apply to heavy trucks.

Safety implications of extending some Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to light trucks and vans

The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the implications of extending specific Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSS) to light trucks and vans (LTVs). This was accomplished through the examination of the potential safety-related benefits of these standards comparing the injury frequencies and severities of the light trucks and vans and the passenger cars (PCs). The standards considered, which currently apply to passenger cars but not to LTVs, are the head restraint (CMVSS 202), side door strength (CMVSS 214), and roof crush strength (CMVSS 216) standards. The comparison was effected by means of logit models developed from multidimensional tables with injury frequency and severity as dependent variables. There are indications that installing head restraints in light trucks and vans could reduce or prevent minor neck injuries and that modest benefits could be achieved by extending the roof crush standard to the LTVs. It was also determined that the side door strength standard may not necessarily be as beneficial to LTVs in conditions in which the vehicle is struck on the side by another LTV. It is suggested that the general public be made aware of the differences in safety standards between LTVs and PCs.

SAFETY BELT RESTRAINTS AND COMPARTMENT INTRUSIONS IN FRONTAL AND LATERAL MOTOR VEHICLE CRASHES: MECHANISMS OF INJURIES, COMPLICATIONS, AND ACUTE CARE COSTS

A 3-year prospective study examined 76 frontal (F) and 45 lateral (L) motor vehicle crash (MVC) patients with regard to seatbelt restraint use and occupant compartment contact and intrusion injuries. These 121 MVC victims with multiple injuries (39 belted [B] and 82 non-belted [NB]), admitted to a level I trauma center, were studied by accident reconstruction and medical data analysis. They had a MVC mean impact velocity (delta V) of 30 +/- 11 mph and an injury Severity Score of 29 +/- 12. Proper restraint use reduced brain injury in F MVCs (30% FB vs. 47% FNB) but had no effect in L MVCs (63% LB vs. 30% FB [p < 0.06]). Belt use did not protect against lung, liver, spleen, pelvis, or lower extremity (LE) injury. These appeared to be more a function of crash direction, with LE injuries higher in F crashes (p < 0.04) and pelvis injuries (p < 0.001) higher in L crashes. In FB crashes, however, properly used safety restraints were the primary cause of bowel or colon injuries (p < 0.006). Belts did not prevent thoracic or abdominal solid organ injuries in L crashes. Contact-intrusions (CI) of the car occupant compartment in F crashes were the main cause of brain (A-pillar), lung and liver (steering wheel and instrument panel), and LE (toepan) injuries; but in L crashes, side-door CI caused lung, aorta, liver, and pelvic injuries. In contrast, contact-only (CO) injuries of the steering assembly were mainly responsible for injuries to the lung, heart, and liver in F crashes, and side-door CO for lung, liver, and spleen injuries in L crashes. Deaths and complications after injury were higher among F MVC occupants, or when delta V was > or = 30 mph. Hospital and professional costs reflect the complex care needed for victims of multiple injuries: FB, $99,000; FNB, $95,000; LB, $75,000; LNB, $79,000; total, $10.7 million. Present vehicle safety standards are not adequate, and structural design changes are needed to improve restraints and protect occupants from intrusion-related injuries.