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In 1978, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) established the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and began rating vehicles for frontal impact safety for MY1979 with the purpose of providing information to the public so consumers could make better-informed decisions about their purchases. Manufacturers responded to the ratings by voluntarily improving the safety of their vehicles beyond the minimum Federal safety standards. In 1996, NHTSA added testing for side impact protection and more recently to assess the vehicle's rollover propensity. After NHTSA's NCAP, other organizations have followed testing the passive safety performance of the vehicles and publishing the results to the customers with the intention of improving the protection given by the vehicles. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) started in 1995 with an offset frontal impact test and in 2002 with a side impact test using a mobile barrier that represents the typical SUV frontend.

Dynamic rollover accidents are traditionally simulated worldwide by the lateral rollover test, as defined in the FMVSS 208 standard of the NHTSA, and most vehicle manufacturers include rollover tests in their development programs, even though this is compulsory only for some markets. Side airbags are designed to save lives in the case of a lateral collision. Head airbags can also protect the occupants of the vehicle in the case of a rollover, but to date no vehicles are available in the market with head airbags specifically developed for this purpose. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of new head airbags that will protect the occupants of vehicles not only in a lateral collision but also in the case of a rollover accident.