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Benchmark testing of existing seat designs reveals poor performance in low-speed rear impacts. In tests according to the test procedure proposed by GdV, ETH and Autoliv, the neck injury criterion NIC exceeds the limiting value of 15 for almost all seats without a CSD protection system. As only few new car models offer this, a system was developed and tested for aftermarket fitting. The Aftermarket Anti Whiplash System, AWS, consists of a yielding device which is fitted to the seat rails and allows the whole seat to rotate and move backwards. This reduces thorax acceleration and thus the NIC value. As the force required to actuate the device depends on the position of the seat, the system offers optimum protection for large and small occupants. Tests with rear impact dummies (BioRID and HIII(TRID)) show a noticeable reduction in NIC and head rebound speed compared to the standard seat. Loadings to the neck at delta v 15 km/h with AWS are in the same magnitude as at 9 km/h without AWS.

The number of registrations of off-road vehicles in Europe increases. Till now, there is only little knowledge about the passive safety of this vehicle type. Therefore, we investigated the passive safety and especially partner protection in side collisions. Side impact crash tests to an average compact car with a heavy and a lighter off-road vehicle as impacting car were performed. The loadings of the EURO-SID dummy in the compact car are compared with dummy loadings obtained from crash tests where the same type of car was impacted by the movable barrier according to the European side impact test procedure. In the second part of the investigation, the protection of the occupants of off-road vehicles in side collisions is investigated. Therefore, the two types of off-road vehicles were tested according to the European side impact test procedure. Further, a side impact crash test involving two off-road vehicles was performed.

In Western Europe, off-road vehicles gain an increasing share in the new vehicle registration. In Germany, about 60% of these vehicles are equipped with crash bars of massive construction. Due to the fact that crash bars represent a new trend in road traffic, accident data are still scarce. In order to get a better understanding of the potential harm of these constructions to vulnerable road users, crash bar equipped off-road vehicles were tested according to the EEVC-WG 10 proposed sub-systems test procedure to evaluate pedestrian protection for cars. In a first assessment, four different crash bars were tested with the child headform impactor. The tests revealed that HIC values in excess of 1000 (which is the proposed limit at 40 km/h) can already be attained at impact velocities as low as 20 km/h. In a second test programme, two different off-road vehicles with and without crash bars were tested with all EEVC-WG 10 impactors.

Drop tests of different types of helmets were performed with different drop velocities and points of impact on the helmet. A close relation showed between HIC and peak acceleration. An investigation of experimental and theoretical acceleration vs. time curves indicated that the shock absorption performance of current helmets is more affected by the thickness of the protective padding than by its energy absorption capacity. The influence of rotational acceleration on the headform was under investigation as well. It was demonstrated that rotational acceleration can be nearly 5 krad/s2 in normal test conditions as specified in ECE-R 22.