Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID AND LOUISE HOLLYER SPECIAL TO ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But, in 1966, Congress adopted the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act and a scientific approach to promote highway safety emerged. This led the institute to completely restructure its focus and programs to follow the government's lead.
To lead the new direction, the institute chose as its president, William Haddon Jr., a public health physician and researcher who had headed the first federal highway safety agency and had developed the first scientific approach to reducing motor-vehicle deaths and injuries.
The institute has become an organization that not only conducts research on highway deaths and injuries but also disseminates this information to the public.
President Brian O'Neill joined the institute in the early '70s as a member of its research staff. He became vice president of research in 1980, executive vice president in 1984 and president in 1985. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Bath in England.
Up to two years ago, the institute contracted with outside research organizations for all of its crash testing. But, as testing became more complicated, the institute recognized the need for a test facility of its own.
In December 1992, the institute opened the 108,468-square-foot Vehicle Research Center. The $8 million test center, built with contributions from property and casualty insurers across the nation, is on 175 acres of rolling farm land in Greene County on Route 633, a small country road which intersects with Route 29.
A winding drive leads to an impressive building in a well-landscaped setting. Its antiseptically clean interior houses offices, meeting rooms, a photo studio and a huge area which displays vehicles already tested in a variety of staged crash scenarios.
In the 120-by-180 crash area are two 600-foot crash runways (1200 feet from end to end) permitting maximum test speeds of 50 mph and a third, 200-foot runway at right angles to the others with a maximum test speed of 20 mph.
The institute's research shows that 50 mph is a realistic crash speed and that highway crashes occur at even slower speeds because some braking action takes place. The shorter runway is used to simulate an intersection in the main runway, where collisions normally occur at 20 mph.
These runways provide the unusual ability to conduct all kinds of crash tests in a single area: car-into-car head-on and front offset tests, car-to-car side impact tests to simulate intersection crashes and direct front, front-offset and angle barrier tests using its movable 320,000-pound steel and concrete crash barrier.This barrier is the first of its kind in the world and moves on a cushion of air so it can be positioned out of the way when car-to-car testing is being conducted.Thirteen massive light assemblies suspended from the ceiling over the crash site produce nearly 750,000 watts allowing crash tests to be filmed using high speed photography to capture the action for future study in slow motion.
A unique feature is its compressed nitrogen gas propulsion system custom-made in Germany, the first of its type in North America, which pulls the cars down the runway at speeds up to 50 mph.
A 1,000-by-150 foot outdoor track accommodates handling and braking tests of cars and light trucks under simulated wet and icy road conditions.
The research center also includes a fully equipped dummy calibration laboratory headed by senior engineer David Zuby. Its sophisticated dummies are equipped with multiple surface sensors and internal solid state memories to allow computerized post-crash analysis to pinpoint the location and severity of body injuries that human occupants would have sustained.
Highway safety improvements are preceded by scientific studies that are carefully designed, conducted and analyzed. The federal motor vehicle safety standards require certain specific tests by car manufacturers. One of these, the flat barrier frontal crash in which the energy of the impact is spread across the vehicle's whole front end, has been required since the '70s. It has led to improvements in restraint systems and the installation of air bags, which have been so successful in preventing or minimizing life threatening chest and head injuries.
"Now, we're seeing no significant injuries above the waist but quite serious leg injuries," O'Neill said. "Those leg injuries are not new. They were always there but no one cared about them when someone sustained life-threatening injuries.
"But now, there is a focus on doing something about lower limb injuries which are rarely fatal but are very expensive and often involve severe long-term complications."
According to institute studies, lower limb injuries are second only to head injuries in frontal crashes. They are the third leading cause of insurance claims with medical costs exceeding $100,000, behind only brain damage and paralysis.
For that reason, during 1993, the research center has been conducting a series of high-speed car-to-car offset crashes in which only part of the vehicles' front ends are involved. The aim is to develop test procedures that supplement the required government flat-barrier tests. In this type of crash, vehicle body parts are more likely to intrude into the passenger compartment and cause lower limb injuries.
The next area of improvement necessary in cars is vehicle structure, in particular reducing intrusion into the occupant compartment, O'Neill said. The institute is working on a program that it hopes will lead manufacturers to focus on different kinds of crashes and then design their cars differently. ."The next area of improvement necessary in cars is vehicle structure, in particular reducing intrusion into the occupant compartment," said O'Neill.
"The program we are involved in right now is, we hope, leading manufacturers to focus on some different kinds of crashes and, therefore, design their cars somewhat differently. The first area of the occupant compartment that gets compromised in a crash today is the footwell area so a lot of the focus is preventing intrusion in the lower part of the compartment, which produces the likelihood of serious leg injuries. What usually comes in first is the wheels!"
"In the old days," O'Neill said, "they used to design cars by putting a frame down and building a body around it. Today, the body is specifically designed with a very rigid 'safety cage,' very sturdy, with cross members making sure there is lateral strength.
The test also uses an advanced dummy as a stand-in for the passenger.
"It is a very sophisticated test instrument designed to perform exactly like a human in a crash," O'Neill said. Simultaneously it records extensive information that can be interpreted in terms of the likelihood of injuries. Injury-related measurements can be taken on the head, the neck, the chest and the legs," he said.
One of the insurance institute's most innovative crash study programs, which has been ongoing since 1987, involves an in-depth study of actual crashes on roads in a seven county area around Charlottesville.
The investigators look for parts of the car that may have been injury producing parts or body contact points. From measurements on the vehicles involved, they can recreate the forces.
The University of Virginia's hospital serves the entire seven county area encompassed by the study and gets detailed injury information on the occupants from the hospital so it can develop relationships between crash severity and injury severity.
The information collected provides firsthand insight into occupant injuries, the reasons for the injuries, restraint system performance and crashworthiness of the vehicles, which demonstrates how well or how poorly the car body protected the occupant. This information relates directly to the types of tests being conducted at the research center and helps ensure that its testing programs relate to real vehicle problems.
by CNB