Occupant compartment designs and restraint systems are both of central importance in reducing occupant deaths and injuries. Motor vehicle compartments should be designed to minimize the likelihood of occupant ejection, occupant compartment intrusion, and occupant impacts with hostile structures inside the compartment. Restraints reduce but do not eliminate the likelihood of such impacts. In all crash modes, both unrestrained and restrained occupants can and often do have violent impacts with rigid structures inside the occupant compartment. The designs of some interior features are required to meet the performance requirements of a number of federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS 's). This paper focuses on the designs of interior features, such as instrument panels and front seat backs, likely to be impacted in frontal crashes, and considers the extent to which they are subject to FMVSS no 201. The need to design such interior compartment structures to reduce injuries is especially important for children. FMVSS no 201 is inadequate and should be upgraded to force use of less hazardous designs. For the covering abstract of the conference see irrd abstract no 254461.
Abstract