As part of a $1 million standards development program, the Federal Office of Road Safety crash tested ten cars at General Motors-Holden's facility in Victoria. All aspects of this program are reported in FORS report OR 12 "Review of passenger car occupant protection : main report". Seven cars were standard Australian mass-produced vehicles. The remaining three were vehicles fitted with improved restraint systems which included emerging technology such as airbags, webbing clamp retractors, buckle pretensioners and energy absorbing steering wheels. The tests used the procedures set out in us Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 which specifies injury parameters for the head, recorded by instrumented dummies. The tests provided a general indication of the safety performance of the Australian fleet and the likely improvements to be gained from developing a new Australian Design Rule based on FMVSS 1208 which is expected to bring about the installation of emerging safety technology such as airbags.
Abstract