Summary of IHRA pedestrian safety WG activities : proposed test methods to evaluate pedestrian protection afforded by passenger cars.

The IHRA Pedestrian Working Group has conducted investigation and analysis on the current status of pedestrian accidents in the IHRA member countries. The accident data that occurred by 1999 was collected, then the formats of the accident data unified and a dataset established that makes it possible to make comparison with each other. According to the current status of pedestrian accidents, three parts of the pedestrian's body have the highest priority for protection, the child and adult heads, and the adult lower leg/knee. As for the motor vehicle, it was determined which particular parts of the motor vehicle were involved, which pedestrian body parts they injured and the severity of the injuries, and analysed the effect of their shapes, corresponding to the items above. It was decided that the test methods should be for motor vehicles for passenger use but not buses and coaches. The shapes of passenger cars were investigated and categorised by three groups, Sedan, SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) and 1-Box (One Box Vehicle), so that the effects of these vehicle shapes could be studied with computer simulations. The simulations to date have focused on the head impact speed, head impact angle, head effective mass, and the Wrap Around Distance to the head impact point (WAD). It was decided to adopt the subsystem methods and to establish specifications for impactors for each subsystem. That is, three subsystem test procedures (adult headform, child headform and legform impact tests) were proposed in high priority identified in the analysis of pedestrian accidents in the IHRA member countries. The pedestrian test procedures proposed and investigated by the experts of IHRA member countries may in the future provide a basis of technical regulations, however, it was recognised that considerable research and development was required to refine the test procedure. It was deemed necessary to conduct validation study of the test procedures through actual tests using sample vehicles and to explore the car feasibility level prior to the use of the test methods in legislation.