SIDE IMPACT FIXED-POLE CRASH TESTING OF THE NHTSA (NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION) MODIFIED VEHICLE

A series of car-to-fixed pole crash tests were performed. The test vehicles were two-door Volkswagen Rabbits. Three crashes were performed to select a test condition which represented a serious-to-fatal chest injury producing highway accident. The fourth crash utilized a structurally modified Rabbit with three inches of side interior padding. The report documents the selection of the crash conditions and the acceleration results as measured on the vehicles and on the two dummy surrogates used for each test.