Automobiles and highway crash attenuators : system design-considerations. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board HRB, Washington, D.C., January 1974.

Present fixed-object casualties and scheduled future vehicle crashworthiness performance, when compared with trends toward smaller automobiles, allow rough estimation of future requirements for highway crash attenuators. Smaller, stiffer attenuators will be appropriate. They should provide protection for frontal crashes between 40 and 70 mph. Resulting savings in attenuator costs should allow protection of 2 to 3 times as many hazard sites.