Side-Impact Airbags

When an SUV hits a passenger car in the side, occupants of the car often are killed or suffer severe head injuries. The government is moving to make car occupants safer with new side-impact regulations. A new 4-foot 11-inch crash-test dummy, named for NHTSA Administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge's mother, Irma, will play the part of small stature females, children and the elderly in the crash testing. For the first time, Dr. Runge said, Vince, a crash-test dummy with the proportions of an average man, will be equipped to register brain injury in side-impact testing. Sixty percent of all fatalities in these crashes are the result of head injuries.

Big Against Small
The auto industry, NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have been voluntarily working to address the question of compatibility between cars and trucks. Side curtain airbags that protect both the front and back passengers and protect the head and torso seem at this point to be the best protection. Many of the current side airbags, though, do not inflate deeply enough to protect a small-stature female or a child. Irma will be testing this.


"The side impact rule is going to be the most life-saving rule that I will participate in during my tenure at the agency," Runge said. Once the rule is fully in place in the fleet, "we expect [it] to save between 700 and 1000 lives a year. I am very excited about this rule." The proposed regulatory upgrade could become a final rule as early as 2005, with a phase-in for all new vehicles beginning after publication of a final rule. It would come at an estimated cost to the auto industry of $1.6 billion to $3.6 billion.

Impact Testing
The current side-impact test rams a 3,000 barrier at 33.5 mph into the side of cars and trucks weighing up to 6,000 pounds. NHTSA is proposing a new test that will ram vehicles sideways into a fixed pole at 18 to 20 mph and would mimic the effects of crashes with taller vehicles, trees or utility poles on vehicles up to 10,000 pounds.


"We expect that this rigorous requirement will spur the introduction of a comprehensive array of technologies for side-impact protection. The proposal represents a major step toward safer vehicles," said Dr. Runge.