Development of analytical procedures to characterize the vehicle environment in frontal impact accidents

This paper presents information on analytical procedures being developed to characterize a baseline vehicle fleet in frontal crashes. A newly developed analytical model is being implemented for this characterization. The Passenger/Driver Simulation model (PADS) can simulate unrestrained and restrained driver and passenger occupants in frontal crashes. The baseline characterization started with the selection of representative passenger car make/model groupings. Each grouping has similar structural and interior characteristics. The PADS model is being run in an automated mode simulating these vehicles in different frontal crash configurations. The output of the PADS runs includes measures of injury severity and the cause of the injury. The PADS output obtained in these automated runs will be compared to field accident data. Since the analytical procedures and tools are still being refined, this paper focuses on the methodology and its implementation rather than the results.