title: Event data recorders in the analysis of frontal impacts.
abstract: Evaluations of crash protection safety features require measures for quantifying impact severity. Velocity change (delta-V) is the major descriptor of collision severity used in most real-world crash databases. One of the limitations of delta-V is that it does not account for the time over which the crash pulse occurs (delta-t). Late model GM vehicles equipped with event data recorders capture the cumulative delta-V in 10 ms intervals over the crash pulse. Deceleration can be readily calculated from these data and provides a complementary measure of severity that has not previously been available for real world crashes. The relationship between maximum delta-V and deceleration was examined for different vehicle platforms involved in real world frontal impacts and frontal crash tests. Maximum deceleration was observed to be closely correlated to the maximum delta-V.
authors.affiliation: Transport Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: German
authors.forename: J-L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Comeau
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: McClafferty
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Shkrum
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Tiessen
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001336:Automobiles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D019992:Databases as Topic; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States