Cooperative industry/government efforts are underway in the United States to improve heavy truck occupant crash protection, and to reduce heavy truck aggressivity in truck/car collisions in which the front structure of the truck contacts the car. The importance of this work is highlighted by the fact that in the U.S. in 1992, 584 medium/heavy truck occupants and 3,455 other vehicle occupants were killed in crashes involving medium/heavy trucks. The occupant crash protection work is focused on developing component or subsystems-level performance test procedures to assess the crash protection properties of restraint systems, cab interior surfaces/objects (primarily steering wheels), and cab structures. The front structure and cab structures. The front structure aggressivity work is focused on developing ways of reducing the geometric and structural mismatches that occur between trucks and cars when they collide. This paper provides an overview of the work completed to date and outlines the plans and direction of future work. (A)
Abstract