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The majority of real world frontal collisions involve only partial overlap of the vehicle front. Both, the resulting car deformations and the occupant loadings cannot be simulated with an impact against a flat or an angled (i.e. 30 degrees) barrier, even with an impact speed of 35 mph. As a consequence, safety engineers at Mercedes-Benz have established an adequate offset crash test with 40% barrier overlap. The effectiveness of offset design is demonstrated by means of numerous critical and realistical offset crash tests, such as impact with 40% and 25 % barrier overlap, impact against a pole (20% overlap) or car-to-car collisions (approx. 50% overlap). It is evident that further improvements in car design, in particular with respect to its effectiveness in real world accidents, can only be induced by offset testing.

Safety considerations at Daimler-Benz are based on real-world accidents from which internal test procedures are derived. The example of the frontal collision is a clear illustration of this. In a crash against a flat, full car width barrier, a rare occurrence in real-world accidents, the impact energy is distributed over the entire width of the car. The majority of real-world frontal crashes, however, involve only partial overlap of the front. An adequately designed structure has to absorb the crash energy before it deforms the passenger compartment, i. e. by distributing the impact forces, and strategically located components must avoid the formation of blocks. In particular, the passenger compartment must be sufficiently stiff. Restraint systems and interior padding can only serve their protective purpose to their fullest if the survival space for the occupants is maintained intact.