Side Impact

           Another test for impact is side impact and this is the second most crash test after frontal impact.Over the past 20 years, the number of deaths related to front impact crashes has declined, while side impact crash fatalities have increased by 20 percent, in part due to larger vehicles, like SUVs, on the road. In a side impact crash, there is an average of just eight inches of steel protecting children in the back seat. Side impact collisions are among the deadliest type of collision for children, accounting for on in three child crash fatalities, nearly all of which are caused by head trauma.

Euro NCAP simulates this type of crash by having a mobile deformable barrier (MDB) impact the driver’s door at 30 mph. In the Institute's test, a 3,300-pound SUV-like barrier hits the driver side of the vehicle at 3o mph. Two SID-II dummies representing small (5th percentile) women or 12-year-old children are positioned in the driver seat and the rear seat behind the driver.

 

• When a vehicle is hit on the side by another vehicle, the crumple zones of the striking vehicle will absorb some of the kinetic energy of the collision. 
• The crumple zones of the struck vehicle may also absorb some of the collision's energy, particularly if the vehicle is not struck on its passenger compartment. Both vehicles are frequently turned from their original directions of travel.
• If the collision is severe, the struck vehicle may be spun or rolled over, potentially causing it to strike other vehicles, objects, or pedestrians. 
• After the collision, the involved vehicles may be stuck together by the folding of their parts around each other. An occupant on the struck side of a vehicle may sustain far more severe injuries than an otherwise similar front or rear collision crash.

This video show how the crash test doing and what happened during the test

Engineers look at three factors to determine side ratings: driver and passenger injury measures, head protection, and structural performance.

Injury measures: Injury measures from the two dummies are used to determine the likelihood that occupants would sustain significant injuries in a real-world crash. Measures are recorded from the head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis, and femur. These injury measures, especially the ones from the head and upper body, are major components of each vehicle's overall side rating.

Head protection: To supplement head injury measures, technicians put grease paint on the dummies' heads before each crash test. After the test, the paint shows what parts of the vehicle or the barrier came into contact with the heads. If the vehicle has airbags and they perform correctly, the paint should end up on them. In cases when the barrier hits a dummy's head during impact, the dummy usually records very high injury measures. That might not be true, however, with a "near miss" or a grazing contact. The paint, along with footage of the test recorded on high-speed film, helps identify such cases, which is important because small differences in occupants' heights or seating positions compared with those of the test dummies could result in a hard contact and high risk of serious head injury.

Structure/safety cage: Engineers assess the vehicle's structural performance by measuring the amount of intrusion into the occupant compartment around the B-pillar (between the doors). Some intrusion into the occupant compartment is inevitable in serious side impacts, but it shouldn't seriously compromise the driver and passenger space. As with head protection, this is another assessment that helps evaluate the injury risk of occupants who aren't exactly the same size or sitting in exactly the same positions as the dummies.

         In the real world, a driver of a vehicle rated good is 70 percent less likely to die in a left-side crash, compared with a driver of a vehicle rated poor. A driver of a vehicle rated acceptable is 64 percent less likely to die, and a driver of a vehicle rated marginal is 49 percent less likely to die. 

Although it is difficult to judge the level of protection provided from the extent of intrusion, control of how the car side intrudes is important. Through the programme, Euro NCAP has seen large improvements in side impact performance. The provision of side impact airbags has helped. It is now normal for the cars tested by Euro NCAP to be fitted with side impact airbags.

Honda Indoor Car-Car Crash Test

In May 2000, Honda opened its indoor omni-directional Real World Crash Test Facility, at the Tochigi R&D Center, Japan -- world's first indoor all-weather, vehicle-to-vehicle crash test center.

 

The facility makes car-to-car crash testing possible in all directions, regardless of the weather. Honda also announced goals for the development of new crash safety technology.

Honda is building on safety advances such as its G-Force Control Technology, designed to reduce injuries and assure a safe survival space for vehicle occupants in the event of an accident. The highly crashworthy car bodies Honda has developed with this technology pass Honda's own demanding testing, withstanding a fixed barrier full frontal collision at 55 km/h and a frontal offset collision at 64 km/h. The company is now selling a wide range of cars built to this high standard of safety.

As a result of years of studying traffic accidents, Honda has progressed to the analysis of issues that cannot be resolved simply with fixed barrier tests, which are only capable of simulating car- to-car collisions involving cars of the same weight. The company has therefore now independently designed a complex variety of car-to-car crash tests that emulate approximately 60% of fatal traffic accidents.

To attain a new standard in crash safety, Honda has established a new test - a 50% frontal offset collision with a 2-ton car, with both cars traveling at 50km/h as the initial target, and 55 km/h as the second step. Honda plans to use the new indoor, omni-directional crash test facility to conduct this and similarly demanding tests as an important new part of the company's ongoing effort to produce vehicles that can withstand real-world traffic accidents.

Developing technology that reduces injuries resulting from collisions is only one aspect of traffic safety. Honda is also continuing its research and development in active safety technology -- technology that helps prevent accidents. An impressive case in point is HIDS (Honda Intelligent Driver Support), a system that utilizes a host of "smart" technologies to alleviate the driver's workload during high-speed freeway driving. HIDS is implemented in the second iteration of Honda's ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle). In addition, Honda's multifaceted traffic safety research program includes driver education, an important part of the company's comprehensive effort to make driving safer.