What is the effect on facial, head, chest and abdominal injury causation potentials of raising the air bag deployment thresholds

This quantitative analysis explored the nature and frequency of injuries to selected body regions sustained by front seat occupants of non air bag equipped vehicles in frontal collisions. The frequency and severity of those injury types were then correlated with the vehicle's change in velocity to determine the injury causation potentials for the specific body region(s). The analysis then determined the effect on front seat occupant protection associated with raising the “must deploy” threshold velocity from the nominal 12 mph barrier equivalent velocity (BEV) to nominal 18 mph BEV in air bag equipped vehicles.; The data utilized in this study were extracted from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (NASS/CDS) for the years 1981–1996. The data being analyzed were then recoded and entered into a unique database in order to account for year-to-year variable coding differences. The data indicated that both restrained and unrestrained drivers and right front seat occupants began to sustain injuries to the selected body regions at changes in velocity of approximately 8 mph, and that increasing the “must deploy” threshold for air bag systems to 18 mph would result in a significant increase in the frequency and severity of injury to the selected body regions.; The data supports the appropriateness of the air bag “must deploy” threshold incorporated into the design of non-depowered frontal air bag systems, and that the deployment threshold chosen by the automobile manufacturers is reasonable and justifiable from the perspective of occupant injury protection. The data further indicate that any increase in the air bag deployment thresholds will result in a net societal detriment to the protection of front seat occupants.; As the NASS database ever increases, more crash/injury data will become available for analysis. The use of this future data, in conjunction with the unique database created for this study, will allow for direct occupant injury comparisons from real-world crash investigations involving comparable crash parameters of similar model vehicles with alternative air bag deployment (threshold) design characteristics. This expanding universe of data will then be capable of providing additional inputs for the continued refinement of automotive air bag system design characteristics and air bag deployment parameters.