In 1993 the European Experimental Vehicles Committee set up Working Group 14 to develop a test procedure for energy-absorbing front underrun protection systems (FUPS) for trucks. For this purpose the working group proposed a research programme, describing a stepwise approach to achieve this objective. This paper reports on the first results of the project dealing with accident investigation and results from car-to-truck frontal crash tests with a front underrun protection device (FUPD) according to ECE Regulation No. 93. For the first time accident data of several European countries have been connected to give an overview about the accident scene in Europe with respect to car-to-truck frontal collisions. A representative accident type is defined as a basis for crash testing. Car-to-truck frontal crash tests with a FUPD according to the ECE Regulation are described and the results are discussed. (A)
Samenvatting