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This paper provides a summary of preliminary results of three car-to-car 90-degree lateral impact crash tests with initially restrained Hybrid III and US-SID dummies. These tests comprised part of a collaborative research project between Monash University, Autoliv Australia and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria. The overall research project objectives were to investigate the nature of non-struck side occupant injuries in automobile side impacts and to develop technical solutions to reduce these injuries. The test program results showed that a sash belt with a pretensioner and good geometry was effective in reducing occupant lateral excursions and lap belt loads. An increase in occupant neck loading was however observed and measured. Lateral torso seat restraints helped to prevent direct contacts between adjacent occupants resulting in a reduced HIC measured for a non-struck side occupant dummy.

This is a summary of a paper which first appeared in the International Journal of Crashworthiness under the title: “Side Impact Protection - Occupants in the Far-Side Seat”, Vol. 3, No.2, pp 93-122. Readers are directed to the full paper for a more comprehensive discussion of the issues presented here. Much of the applied vehicle side impact occupant protection research to date has concentrated on occupants seated beside the struck side of vehicles. These occupants are defined as ‘near-side’ occupants. Real world crash evidence however has shown that occupants seated on the side away from the struck side, defined as ‘far-side’ occupants, are still subject to a risk of injury. This paper examines side impact epidemiology from an injury causation perspective, and endeavours to explain evidence indicating head injuries and seat belt related injuries constitute a significant proportion of all far-side impact injuries.