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Abstract
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The Motor vehicle Safety Standards established by the National Highway Safety Bureau have applied to new model automobiles for four years. Statistics are being accumulated by several organizations to assess how application of these Standards has affected injuries sustained in collisions.
There is no doubt that the combination of automobile industry efforts and the NHSB Safety Standards are responsible for a reduction in collision injuries. As noted, the ratio of total injuries per occupant remained approximately the same for the three vehicle study group over a ten-year period. The ratio of moderate or greater injuries per occupant, however, declined over 50 percent from the late-1950 and early-1960 group to the post- 1966 group.
With the exception of hood penetration, side impact, and rollover collisions, higher impact speed and greater vehicle deformation must be present in collisions involving current domestic vehicles to produce injuries similar to those observed in earlier model vehicles. The shift of position of injury producing components in the vehicle interior demonstrates the overall effect of industry and government efforts.
The data also suggest that two areas, side impact and rollover protection, are principal collision areas that must be improved. A beginning has been made in 1969 and 1970. When these two areas received the same design effort as those areas previously discussed, a substantial first order reduction of automobile collision injuries will have been achieved for the entire vehicle. |