Abstract
Despite the use of seat belts, frontal impacts pose the greatest accident threat to car occupants. The major cause of serious and fatal injuries arises from occupant contact with intruded parts of the car structure. Relevant legislation, to control passenger compartment intrusion, is limited to a rigid block impact, at 50 km/h. In Europe, the only mandatory requirement, in this test, relates to rearward displacement of the steering wheel. Research is showing the need for a test which is both offset and uses a deformable impact face. A list of proposed criteria for a new test procedure is presented. Details of one such offset deformable impact test are given. (A)