• From an engineering perspective,
crashworthiness is the ability of the vehicle to prevent
occupant injuries in the event of an accident. This topic is
then the technical foundation for the legal doctrine of
crashworthiness or enhanced injury theory. It should be noted
here that the accident is a given when assessing the
crashworthiness of a vehicle. It is further worth noting that
the cause of the accident is technically irrelevant in
crashworthiness cases even if the severity of the accident is
an issue. Severity can be assessed independently of the cause
of the accident. Severity is recorded in steel- in sheet
metal damage for the most part. Preceding instances of human
agency and even mechanical failures that produced the record
are not relevant for interpreting it. If accident causation
is an issue in a crashworthiness case, it is for legal
reasons then and not technical ones. (Various courts have in
fact upheld the view that driver error or malfeasance is
irrelevant in crashworthiness cases.)
• The questions of vehicle crashworthiness are
then: Given the injury mechanisms of an accident, and
typically some measure of its severity (see
delta v ) could the occupants of the vehicle have
fared better than they did? Was there some feature lacking in
the vehicle which would have reduced their injuries and
should have been there on some theory or other?
• Crashworthiness is not the same as vehicle
safety, and the two topics must be distinguished. The safety
afforded by a vehicle depends both on crashworthiness and
accident avoidance features, the latter including such things
as ABS, good handling characteristics, or even oversize
tires. These two concepts are frequently confused to the
detriment of those raising the crashworthiness issue. One
vehicle might be safer statistically than another and still
have a significant crashworthiness defect. It could even
conceivably be less crashworthy overall while still being a
"safer" vehicle. This is because vehicle
crashworthiness depends on designed in features as well as
equipment specifications which can be viewed as design
features. A given vehicle either has these features or it
doesn't regardless of its accident or even injury rates.
• A typical list of crashworthiness features
includes things like air bags, seat belts, crumple zones,
side impact protection, interior padding and head rests.
These features may or may not be present in a particular
vehicle and may or may not work even if present. All of these
items have been available since the early 1970's, yet many
are still not found in vehicles produced in the 1990's. Some
are mandated by FMVSS (CFR 49: 571.201pp.) to one degree or
another. Gradually these standards are being upgraded to
include all of the items listed above as well as other
features long known to be required for occupant safety.
• The features list for crashworthy vehicles is
generated by consideration of the fundamental accident
modalities to which all highway vehicles must be assumed to
be subject. These are the "foreseeable" accident
types: impacts at any angle on all vertical surfaces of the
vehicle (front, rear, left and right sides) as well as
rollover accidents. Crashworthiness features must minimize
second collision (occupant into vehicle interior) forces and
prevent ejection and reduce fire risk.
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