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Injuries to the lower leg are still a frequent occurrence in frontal crashes and the most serious injuries have been found to be associated with the ankle region (pilon, calcaneal and talar neck fractures). These injuries are not only of a high severity, they are also associated with long-term impairment, which contributes significantly to the societal cost associated with road traffic accidents. In order to reduce these injuries, the ability to determine the potential injury risk in legislative crash tests as well as the capability to assess the performance of proposed enhanced safety measures in the vehicle footwell region is essential. If this is to be achieved a biofidelic assessment tool with appropriate injury criteria is required. In Europe, the protection afforded against injury in frontal impacts is currently assessed by the Hybrid III dummy in an offset deformable barrier test.

The tasks of EEVC Working Group 13 are aimed at the improved protection of car occupants in side impacts. Specifically, EEVC WG13 has been concentrating on three main tasks; the development of an interior headform impact test procedure, an improved specification for the Mobile Deformable Barrier used in the EEVC Side Impact Test Procedure and contributions to the IHRA activities on the development of the next generation side impact test procedures. This report describes progress on these three topics.

The work reported here relates to a research project that was undertaken to support the current review of the European frontal and side impact Directives. The aim of the project was to conduct a general review focusing on the major issues identified in the Articles of the Directives and in a report to the European Commission on accident analyses. These are test speed, neck injury criteria and extension to N1 vehicles for frontal impact; and test severity, barrier height, seating position, Viscous Criterion and the necessity of a pole test for side impact. A comprehensive analysis of the results from the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP) crash tests has been used to review the suitability of the current injury criteria, car structural performance requirements and test configuration. This is backed up with accident analysis using data from the UK Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) and the recent accident analysis co-funded by the European Commission.

Problems with the current methods of attaching child restraints to the vehicle structure have led to the development of new attachment systems. These proposals have been coordinated by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) with the intention of generating an international standard system for the attachment of child restraints - ISOFIX. These proposals attempt to balance the requirements for good dynamic performance in impacts with the requirements for ease of use, low misuse and the cost and complexity of the child restraint and of incorporating the system into the vehicle design. This research programme was designed to compare the dynamic performance of a range of systems and how they would be used by parents. Prototype child restraints designed to four different schemes being proposed for ISOFIX were produced based on a single design of child seat shell. These were subject to frontal, side and rear impacts.

Even though child restraint systems (CRS) are very effective there are still serious problems because of non-use or misuse. This is often due to the fact that the installation of the CRS in the cars is difficult, complicated and unstable. A standardised interface between the CRS and the car seat would solve these problems. Within the IS0 Committee ISO/TC22/SC12NVGl this item has been raised and several proposals for an “ISOFIX have been discussed. Apart from the installation aspects, other features e.g. disconnection of passenger airbags can be included in the system. Several concepts called ISOFlX type 1 to 7 with different working names e.g. DELTAFIX, EASY-FIX, MONOFIX and UNlFlX have been evaluated. The handling performance of some of the prototypes have been tested by customer evaluation with very positive results. Crash performance has also been investigated. The paper will give an update on the latest progress of this development, including a preliminary specification.

Most legislation in Europe regarding the carrying of child passengers in cars prohibits them from travelling in the front seats, whether restrained or not. The UK Parliament decided that from 31 January 1983 the compulsory restraint use legislation should permit children in the front seat of cars if restrained. This paper reviews both accident experience from overseas and impact tests with child dummies restrained by adult seat belts and child restraints. Both sets of information provided background to the parliamentary decision. The effect that the legislation has had on restraint usage by children is also described and a comparison is made between interim accident data available since the introduction of the legislation and those from previous years.