Influence of Vehicle Model Year and Occupant Seating Position on Serious Injury Risk in Near-Side Collision

The crash safety of four-door sedans in near-side impacts was investigated with respect to the vehicle model year and the occupant seating position to predict serious injury risks, using the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) moving deformable barrier (MDB) tests database as the data sources. The test vehicle geometrical characteristics and the crush deformation were summarized with the head injury criteria (HIC), the thoracic trauma index (TTI), and the peak pelvis lateral acceleration (PPLA) used to evaluate serious injury risks for different body regions of occupants. The results show that these injury criteria all decrease with increasing vehicle model year for both front and rear seat occupants. Much higher risks of serious head and thoracic injury occur for rear seat occupants compared with the front seat occupants for newer vehicle models. Restraint effectiveness is closely related to occupant seating positions. Therefore, the head and thoracic injury mechanism and countermeasures should be emphasized for rear seat occupants.