RESEARCH TESTS TO DEVELOP IMPROVED FMVSS 301 REAR IMPACT TEST PROCEDURE

A test series was conducted with a moving deformable barrier similar to the FMVSS 214 (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214) barrier impacting the rear of the subject vehicle in a partial overlap configuration to evaluate fuel system integrity. The tests were conducted in two phases. The first phase examined rear impact test configuration differences such as overlap, speed and alignment; the second phase examined the performance of various vehicles using a consistent test protocol based on the first phase of testing and crash data analysis. This paper presents the results of these fuel system integrity tests. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD E102514.