With the introduction of air bags coming into the market at a brisk pace, and foreseeing the need for assessing the safety benefits of the air bag for all sizes of vehicle occupants, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) awarded in 1987 a contract to the Ohio State University under the title "Development for Multisized Hybrid III-Based Dummy Family". At the time the funding covered only the development of a small female and a large male dummies. Recognizing the need for dummies with improved biofidelity and extended measuring capability and capacity to evaluate the safety of children, CDC provided additional funding in 1989 to develop a design foundation for the Hybrid III-type child size dummies. To support this work, the Ohio State University asked the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to form an appropriate working group that would provide advice and guidance from the automotive perspective. The SAE, through its Hybrid III Dummy Family Task Group and later, also through the Dummy Testing Equipment Subcommittee, has continued the development work since then, resulting in the construction of prototype Hybrid III-type 5th percentile female, 95th percentile male, six-year-old, three-year-old, and CRABI 12-month-old dummies. In 1997, NHTSA, in cooperation with the appropriate technical committees of SAE, initiated an evaluation program for the prototype Hybrid III dummies prior to proposing them for incorporation into Part 572 as regulated test devices. This paper provides highlights of the Agency program which was used to evaluate the Hybrid III three-year-old and six-year-old child dummies and the 5th percentile female dummy for their sufficiency as measurement devices. (A)
Abstract