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As a supplement to officially published government accident statistics since 1969 Mercedes-Benz has been systematically investigating automobile accidents involving injured occupants in Mercedes-Benz cars. Typically our accident data has been analysed using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). This paper will describe the first application of the new Injury Cost Scale (ICS), published at the AAAM-conference 1989, to our real world accident data. A comparison for the handling of multiple injuries will be provided taking into account on the one hand only the most expensive injury and on the other hand each injury. The first experiences in the application of the ICS will be discussed. The ICS is intended as supplemental to the AIS.

The most important factors to consider in order to improve the level of occupant protection measures are those determined through the investigation of real world accidents. The distribution of various types of collision and impact speeds provides a sound basis for more realistic test procedures. One result of our in-depth accident investigations is the identification of the frontal offset collision with only partial overlap as the most frequent frontal accident with injured occupants. Based on that an additional frontal impact test procedure carried out with 40 % overlap at test speeds up to 55 km/h was derived. The effectiveness of offset design is verified by the analysis of actual accident data.

The accident analysis method of Daimler-Benz is based on the NATO-Report Form which was derived 1971 from the GM-Long Form. For the evaluation of accident severity, a reconstruction of the accident is necessary. For this purpose, the EES-Accident Reconstruction Method (EES-ARM) was developed. It uses all three theorems of conservation: theorem of momentum, theorem of energy and theorem of angular momentum. The method is applicable for all types of accidents including glance-off cases. The calculation is made backwards starting with the analysis of the running-out phase. The EES values (EES = Energy Equivalent Speed corresponding to the deformation energy of a damaged vehicle) are calculated by the means of approximation equations. The EES-ARM Program is available for different types of computers.

From the Daimler-Benz accident investigation files, 222 side collision reports were selected and ranked according to injury severity of car occupants. Those collisions which caused serious to fatal injuries (AIS 3+-sample) were then analysed regarding direction of impact, mass and rigidity of impacting object, degree of injury risk attributed to the occupant seating position, and distribution of injuries over the body areas (head, thorax, pelvis). The findings on direction and “rigidity” of impact support the proposal to continue using the conventional rigid moving barrier but the injury distribution data underline the need to accelerate the development of improved anthropomorphic dummies suitable to simulate human kinematic characteristics.