Practical Analysis Methodology for Low Speed Vehicle Collisions Involving Vehicles with Modern Bumper Systems

This paper will present and validate a practical analysis method for assessing the severity of collisions in real world low speed motor vehicle collisions based on post-collision observations of vehicles with modern bumper systems. In order to achieve this goal, a series of low speed vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-barrier collisions were staged using five modern (1998 to 2000 vehicle models) equipped with different non-isolator bumper structures (e.g. foam impact absorber). The collision parameters of each vehicle-to-vehicle impact were then compared with the results from vehicle-to-barrier impacts involving the same vehicles. The analysis method was applied to predict the results of the vehicle-to-vehicle collisions and it was found to be a valid method for correlating the collision severity of a low speed vehicle-to-vehicle impact from barrier test data.

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