Abstract
In a crash, impact against the steering assembly can be amajor cause of serious and fatal injury to drivers. Butthe interrelationship between injury protection and fac-tors of surface area, configuration, padding, relativeposition of the spokes, and number and stiffness of spokesand rim is not clear. This paper reports a series of sledtests. Results of these tests are believed to be signifi-cant to both engineering of steering wheel design and me-dical interpretation of causation of driver injuries.