Research on Occupant Protection in Side Collision of Automobile

Occupants of an ordinary passenger car tend to be injured more when an increasingly popular and taller sports utility vehicle (SUV) collides with an ordinary passenger car. As a means to reduce the possibility of such injuries, the Laboratory is analyzing data of side-collision accidents and is testing side collisions of passenger cars by tall vehicles using actual cars and a movable deformable barrier that simulates a tall vehicle. These analyses and tests are used to improve side collision test methods which determine collision phenomena and factors that cause occupant injuries.