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During the period 1992 through 2000, the William Lehman Injury Research Center collected crash and injury data on 141 drivers and 41 right front passengers in frontal crashes with air bag deployment. Among these cases were twenty-eight cases with depowered air bags. The paper compares the crash characteristics for injured occupants in vehicles with 1st generation and depowered air bags. The population with 1st generation air bags contains unexpected fatalities among as well as fatalities at low delta-V's. To date, these populations are absent among the fatally injured occupants of vehicles with depowered air bags. The depowered cases include both belted and unbelted survivors at crash severities above 40 mph delta-V. The maximum injury in these severe crashes was AIS 3 with no evidence of unsatisfactory air bag performance. However, serious internal chest injuries were observed in two cases with unrestrained drivers at crash severities of 19 and 24 mph.

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.