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With the many different types of vehicles coming out, there are a lot of discrepancies between the sizes of the vehicles. These differences are proving to be a complete mismatch when two of these models run into each other. This often leaves the people who own cars in a very vulnerable and dangerous position, but new side-impact airbag regulations are in the works to improve the odds in these types of scenarios, as described in the following article:

New rules protect vehicles and occupants from sucker punch:

When an SUV hits a passenger car in the side, occupants of the car often are killed or suffer severe head injuries. The government is moving to make car occupants safer with new side-impact regulations.

A new 4-foot 11-inch crash-test dummy, named for NHTSA Administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge’s mother, Irma, will play the part of small stature females, children and the elderly in the crash testing. For the first time, Dr. Runge said, Vince, a crash-test dummy with the proportions of an average man, will be equipped to register brain injury in side-impact testing. Sixty percent of all fatalities in these crashes are the result of head injuries.

Big Against Small:

The auto industry, NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have been voluntarily working to address the question of compatibility between cars and trucks. Side curtain airbags that protect both the front and back passengers and protect the head and torso seem at this point to be the best protection. Many of the current side airbags, though, do not inflate deeply enough to protect a small-stature female or a child. Irma will be testing this.

“The side impact rule is going to be the most life-saving rule that I will participate in during my tenure at the agency,” Runge said. Once the rule is fully in place in the fleet, “we expect [it] to save between 700 and 1000 lives a year. I am very excited about this rule.” The proposed regulatory upgrade could become a final rule as early as 2005, with a phase-in for all new vehicles beginning after publication of a final rule. It would come at an estimated cost to the auto industry of $1.6 billion to $3.6 billion.

Impact Testing:

The current side-impact test rams a 3,000 barrier at 33.5 mph into the side of cars and trucks weighing up to 6,000 pounds. NHTSA is proposing a new test that will ram vehicles sideways into a fixed pole at 18 to 20 mph and would mimic the effects of crashes with taller vehicles, trees or utility poles on vehicles up to 10,000 pounds.

“We expect that this rigorous requirement will spur the introduction of a comprehensive array of technologies for side-impact protection. The proposal represents a major step toward safer vehicles,” said Dr. Runge.

Automaker Commitment:

NHTSA regulations do not require specific technologies to meet its performance standards, but manufacturers would likely meet this upgraded rule with various types of innovative head, chest and pelvis protection systems, such as side airbags. Although more than half of 2004 model year cars and light trucks already provide optional head-protection airbags, it is not clear whether those bags can meet the new standards, particularly with the small stature dummy. NHTSA research showed that many current airbags tested in the new pole test could not save a child-sized dummy from sustaining nearly five times the maximum head injury, because the side curtains did not extend far enough down in the passenger cabin to protect the child’s head.

In April, the IIHS released its first results for car models struck in the side by a truck-size metal barrier. Ten of the 13 midsize cars received the worst rating representing likely death or injury to occupants. Last year IIHS ran a side impact test at 31 mph with the Subaru Forester. Its combination torso/head airbag system protected the driver.

Brian O’Neill, president of IIHS said, “no one knows what to do right now (to make) the front of a SUV or pickup truck…less harmful to occupants in a car.” He believes that SUVs that have high-frame rails must be redesigned, so that the frame rails come down and align with the bumper zone specified by the federal standards, or install a blocker beam like the Ford Motor Company has done. “If the frame rail on a SUV misses the frame rail on a car, you don’t have compatibility. There is a commitment by manufacturers to have frame rails over-lock the bumper zone as specified by the federal standards and many already do.”

The IIHS and NHTSA testing programs along with the automaker’s commitment to find a solution to side-impact fatalities, O’Neill feels, will accelerate the introduction of side-impact airbags. IIHS believes the airbags designed to protect heads are very effective and can reduce driver fatality by 45 percent. Most of the real-world data that led to the 45-percent estimate were combo bags, which combine torso and head bags. But there are reasons to prefer the curtain-style airbags because they also offer rear seat coverage where combo bags do not.

by Cathy Nikkel / autoMedia.com