In response to evolving sensor and occupant retention technologies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will soon begin cooperative research to develop test procedures for advanced occupant restraints. It is believed that these restraints will be real-time adaptive to a variety of crash types and severities, as well as address such problems as improving belt effectiveness in front-front crashes to higher than the current 50% fatality reduction level and possibly making the belts and air bags better suited for rollover and offset crashes. The research will address: identification of potential improvements in current restraints, identification of minimum performance and objective testing, as well as performance metrics, and calculation of benefits inherent in such improvements. To complete these tasks, the identification of a target crash population, estimations of the effectiveness of advanced restraints from test and evaluation, and benefits calculation based upon the target population and the effectiveness estimates is necessary. This paper serves as an initial analysis of the advanced restraint system target population.

The Crashworthiness Data System (CDS) of the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) was chosen for the initial work owing to its complete crash, vehicle, occupant, and injury reporting in the U.S. In addition, in order to maintain a focus on recent vehicle designs and performance, the most recent eight years of data were used for an occupant population that contains only belted drivers and passengers. By analyzing this population, attention was focused on the current performance of restraints in order to identify opportunities for restraint improvement. Restrained occupants with Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) groupings of 3+ (serious injuries and higher) were quantified. Disaggregations of the primary direction of force, impact area, and injury types, among others, were computed across all crash types in order to develop an understanding of the requirements for advanced restraint prototype designs.