The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of recent research activities conducted at the TNO Crash-Safety Research Centre in the Netherlands dealing with heavy truck safety. Three different accident types are considered: (1) the protection of truck occupants in a frontal collision; (2) the protection of car passengers in head-on collisions with a truck; and (3) the protection of cyclists and pedestrians in contact with the side of a trailer. For the first two accident types emphasized in the paper an integrated approach of testing and computer simulation was used in order to achieve an improved crash protection. In the car/truck frontal collision configuration, this resulted in a prototype design resulted in a prototype design for an energy-absorbing truck front underrun protection system. For the third accident type, computer simulations were conducted in order to study the potentials and limitations of possible design solutions. Results of tests and simulations are presented. Other results include insight into the validation level of the computer models used in the study and potential hardware solutions. (A)
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