When most people think of vehicle safety, they think of how well protected the occupants would be in the event of an accident. Pedestrian safety does not feature on customers' want lists, because no one thinks they might cause such an accident. But regulations have changed and testing routines demand cars show pedestrian-friendly credentials. Euro NCAP, the European New Car Assessment Programme, changed its pedestrian safety tests in June 2002, requiring greater protection to be provided to the legs, torso and head of pedestrians in the event of a collision. EuroNCAP's tests aim to replicate accidents involving child and adult pedestrians on the basis of a collision at 40 km/h (25mph). Impact sites on the vehicle are then assessed and rated fair, weak and poor. As with other tests, these ratings are based on the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee guidelines. Engineering advances in the design of the front ends of vehicles have a big part to play in mitigating the damage done to the human body in a collision. A lot of pedestrian safe cars are now equipped with flexible bumpers and energy absorbing elements behind the bumper fascia. In bonnet designs one can see that strong feature lines are more and more changed from very sharp to more smooth. Inner hood designs especially are nowadays designed towards a more homogenous spread of load, meaning that manufacturers are trying to make the impact of a pedestrian's head more location-independent. In the near future, pedestrian safety restraints will be integrated increasingly in initial design studies on vehicles. Designing a vehicle and adding pedestrian safety in the end of the process is not the most cost effective method. Several car manufacturers are also researching the use of active safety systems to further protect pedestrians, like active braking when a pedestrian impact is anticipated.
Developments afoot
Automotive Engineer ; Apr. ; 31-32
2006
2 Seiten, 3 Bilder
Article (Journal)
English
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