Frontal impacts and the effects of Australian design rules 10A and 10B for steering columns: M. H. Cameron. Department of Transport, Office of Road Safety, Melbourne, Victoria Australia, 1979. 83 pp.
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1980
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 129 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0001-4575
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✦ Synopsis
Australian Design Rules (ADRs) 10A and 10B are aimed at reducing injuries to drivers who strike steering columns. ADR 10B is also aimed at limiting rearward displacement of steering columns in frontal collisions.
Information from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Pattern of Injury Survey of crashes and injuries in Victoria was analyzed to measure the effect of the ADRs on injury severity. The problem that there were relatively few drivers of ADR 10A or 1OB cars in the data was solved by developing injury prediction models as functions of the type of occupant, vehicle and crash circumstances. The models were then used to estimate the expected injury pattern in the absence of the ADRs, for comparison with the actual injuries of drivers of ADR 10A or 10B cars who contacted steering assemblies in frontal impacts.
The limited number of drivers of ADR 10B cars in the data meant that the effectiveness of ADR 10B could not be assessed separately and in fact the results primarily related to ADR 10A.
The report concludes that the ADRs are effective in reducing the severity of injury to the abdomen/pelvis, chest and face of some types of drivers who strike steering assemblies in frontal impacts and are not ejected. The effect applies particularly to drivers involved in frontal crashes on the open road. Although not explicitly tested in the analysis, there was some evidence of disbenefits due to the ADRs in terms of the severity of head injury of drivers of small cars, and of leg injury cf belted male drivers and those aged up to 24 driving small cars.
Due to the absence of crash severity information from the data analyzed, the conclusions could not be considered definitive. However, they may be considered strongly indicative due to the analysis method of conside~ng parallel changes in the injury patterns of a control group composed of drivers who did not contact steering assemblies.