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This paper examines injuries and injury mechanisms in side impact crashes being addressed by the United States standard, FMVSS 214. In this side impact protection standard, a moving deformable barrier impacts the occupant compartment of a vehicle being tested. The moving barrier is crabbed at an angle of 23 degrees measured relative to the side of the struck vehicle. The standard assesses the crash protection provided in a vehicle-to-vehicle crash to an occupant seated on the struck side, in the vicinity of the maximum intrusion. The National Automobile Sampling System /Crashworthiness Database System (NASS/CDS) data indicates that 75% AIS 3+ injuries occur in vehicle-to-vehicle crashes, 66% occur to the struck side occupants and 94% occur in crashes with damage to the occupant compartment. Crash directions of 10 and 2 o’clock are the most common injury producing crashes.

The University of Miami's William Lehman Injury Research Center at the Jackson Memorial Medical Center conducts interdisciplinary investigations to study seriously injured restrained occupants in frontal automobile collisions. Engineering analysis of these crashes is conducted in conjunction with the National Crash Analysis Center at the George Washington University. The multi-disciplinary research team includes expertise in crash investigation, crash reconstruction, computer graphics, biomechanics of injuries, crash data analysis, emergency trauma care, and all of the medical specialties associated with the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. More than 300 injured occupants and their crashes have been studied in depth. By careful study of injured crash victims, their vehicle and the crash scene, injury patterns emerge. These patterns form the basis for hypotheses which can be explored further by analysis of mass accident data, crash tests, and computer modeling.