Abstract
Side impact occupant protection and safety has received a great deal of attention in recent years and at many levels including the federal policy level, the automotive OEMs, and in the public. Side impact presents a challenging problem due to the relatively short time durations associated with side impact versus other accident modalities such as frontal impact. In addition, there is less energy-absorbing vehicle structure between the occupant and the oncoming vehicle in side impact accidents. Thus, new technologies are needed to predict, test, and analyse new countermeasures designed to protect the occupant. For abstracts of individual papers see C 15833 - C 15839.