FIELD INVE STIGAT IONS OF THE INJURY P ROTECTION OFFERED BY SOME

"ENERGY ABSORBING" STEERING SYSTEMS

P . F . Gloyns , G . M . Mackay, J . L . G . Hardy and S . J . Ashton

Department of Transportation and Envi ronmen tal P l anning,
Unive r s i t y of B i rmingham, U . K .

ABSTRACT

A f i e l d s tudy o f accidents involving vehi c le s f i t ted with three designs

of "energy absorbing" s teering sys tem is repor ted . Two of these sys tems ,
re lying on axi a l collapse o f the column , have been shown t o provide no
s igni f i c an t add i t i onal ride down , through column compress ion , in real l i f e .
A third sys tem, involving a deformab le can, directly b ehind a three spoke
whee l , appears to provide good p r o t e c t i on throughout the speed range of the
present s ample .

Laboratory tes ting h as indicated that damage t o s teering sys tems

produced under tes ting cond i t ions specifi ed in FMVS S 203 is comp lete ly
d i f ferent from that ob s erved in the f i e ld . Reasons for these d i f ferences
are sugges ted .

INTRODUCTION

Many s teering sys tems f i t ted to current model B r i t i s h cars h ave been
des i gned to meet the j o in t requirements of FMVSS 203 and 204 . The
inten t i on of these s tandards was to dev i s e s i�p le t e s t procedures which
would limit b o th the ehe s t loads developed b e tween the driver and s t eering
wheel to t o lerab le leve l s , and a l s o con trol the intrus ion of the who le
sys tem into the pas s enger compar tmen t during fron t a l impact s .

The inten t i on of the work rep orted here has been t o inve s t igate the
f i e ld performance of three such sys tems , to see if the two S t andards
men t ioned above are achieving the ir goal of reducing s t eering wheel
induced inj uri e s .

EXISTING INFORMATION

A cons iderab le amount o f information about the design , development and

initial f i e ld performan ce , o f axia l c o l l apse "energy ab s orbing" columns
has been pub l i shed in the Uni t ed S tates , where such devices have been
ins t a l led s ince 1 9 6 7 ( 1-9 ) . These and other pub l i shed works on the
s ub j e c t have been reviewed e l s ewhere ( 10) and wi l l not be surveyed in
det a i l here . However , much o f the reported f i e l d work avai lab l e b e fore
mid 19 7 2 , which concluded that axial c o l l apse sys tems were working e f fect­
ive ly in the f i e l d , has fai led t o dis criminate b e tween pr imary and
secondary co l umn damage . Conclus i ons drawn on the bas i s of t o t al column
col l apse about b oth the ' correctne s s ' of column compress ion loads and

3 9 9
the fun c t i oning of the sys tems are mis leading and not us e fu l .

L i t t le pub lished work e xi s t s ab out the performance of "Capri" type

sys tems in the f i e l d , a l though s ome t e s t ing and deve l opment work has been
reported upon, ( 1 1 , 12 , 1 3) .

Recent pub l ished work on axi a l c o l lapse s y s t ems has continued to

sugge s t that real bene f i t s are provided for drivers ( 1 4 , 15 , 1 6 , 1 7 ) .
Re lat ively few problems with these systems have emerged from the l i terature
al though column bend has been cited as an occas i onal cause of fai lure
( 1 8 , 19 ) . A recent anal y s i s of p o l i ce acci dent data in B r i t a in has
detec ted no s t a t i s t i ca l ly s i gni f i cant di fference between driver inj ury in
one model of car before or after the introduction of an axial col lapse
sys tem ( 20) .

The p r e s en t s tudy was , therefore , undertaken agains t a reported back­

ground of e s s en t i al ly s a t i s factory co lumn performance .

METHODOLOGY OF STUDY

A 1-7 day retrospect ive field s tudy was under t aken to as s e s s the real
life performance of three types of "energy absorbing" s teering sys tems
de s i gned s p e c i f i c al ly to comp ly with current s afety l e g i s l at i o n . The
three des i gns chosen were , the axi a l c o l l ap s e systems fi tted mainly to
current Vauxh a l l mode ls , the axi a l col lapse system f i t t ed to the Ford Mark
III Cort ina and Ford Granada/Consul range , and the defo rmab le can behind
the whee l , mounted on a ' ri gi d ' co lumn , which is f i tted to the current Ford
E s c o r t range , and was f i t ted to the Ford Capri and the Ford Zephyr/Zod i a c .
The method of ret rospect ive s t udy used by the Accident Uni t a t B i rmingham
has been d e s c r ib e d e l s ewhere ( 10) and wi l l not be detailed here .

FIELD EXPERIENCE

S amp ling Pro cedure

The s ample on which the fol lowing analy s i s is based is dr awn from two
separate s our ces . The p o l i ce forces o f We s t Mer c i a , Warwi ckshire and the
C i t y of B i rmingham informed the Accident Unit of a l l accidents involving
s e r ious inj ury to at leas t one occupant of a current production car ,
occurring in the i r areas . From th i s l arge group of acc idents , those
invo lving frontal damage to the par t i cu l ar vehicle mode l s of inte r e s t were
se l e c ted . In add i t ion , the p o l i ce forces of S t affordshire , Cheshire ,
Northamp ton and Coun t y , Glouce s tershire , Thames Val ley , and Wes t Mid land s ,
informed the Un i t o f a l l frontal impacts involving the vehicle mode ls of
interes t in which e i ther , the driver was s e rious ly inj ured or there was
severe veh i c l e damage invo lving a probable insurance ' wr i t e of f ' .

l t was intended that this s ampling procedure would enab le s teering s y s t em

performance to be s tudied throughout the energy range of frontal imp a cts .
FIELD RESULTS

S amp le S tructure

The s tructure of the s amp l e to date w i th regard t o make and model i s

shown i n Tab le 1 . Al l the axial c o l l ap s e sys t ems have been grouped
together as there appears to be e s s e n t i a l l y no dif ference b e tween their
field per formance . The main part of this ana l y s i s w i l l deal with the
pro te c t i on offered by the two b a s i c des igns of s teering sys t em to unrest rain­
ed drivers , as i t is th i s s i tuat i on at which the legis l a t i on is mainly aime d .
The f i e ld experience wi th lap diagonal s e a t b e lted drivers w i l l be ment ioned
b riefly la ter .

Tab le 2 describes the age and sex d i s tribut ions of the unres trained
drivers in b o th group s . The t ime lag b e tween ini t i a l ins pect ion of the
vehicle and full medi cal data becoming avai lab l e explains the ' unknown ' age
category . As can b e s een , the drivers in both groups are predominan t ly
male . I t i s important to b e ar this in mind when as s e s s ing inj ury results
as these reflect the performance of male drivers only . The age
dis tribu t i on within the two s amp les are e s s ent ially s imi l ar and show that the
entire range of driver ages is represented in both groups .

The re s u l t s quoted in this s e c t i on w i l l be described in terms of

Equivalent T e s t Speed . This is a concep t used for rat ing the severity of
an imp ac t . I t is an at temp t to relate the d amage observed on a
part icular vehicle in the fie l d , to the speed which that veh i c l e model
would have to imp act a r i g i d d i s tributed b arrier , in this case , t o
reproduce the actual d amage . l t i s nece s s ar i ly an approximate method and
the errors increase as obs erved d amage moves further away from that seen in
the limited number of fron t a l t e s t imp acts carried out to dat e . However ,
with these reservations i t is s t i l l cons idered the b e s t method avai l ab l e ,
at present , for rating the r e l at ive sever ity of a group of accidents . In
s e c t i ons deal ing with injury, a s l ight ly modified AIS has been used in an
attempt t o d i f feren t i at e be tween mul t ip le fatal l e s i ons to the ehe s t and
abdominal regions , causing ins t antaneous death, and rather l e s s severe
damage wh ich may s t i l l result in death , al though after a rather greater
period .

Column performance i s s ometimes a s s e s sed in terms of shear capsule

separation which is used as an indicator of colurnn c o l l ap s e due t o driver
imp ac t .

l t i s a convenient and easy measure t o take in the field but does not
give an accurate as s e s sment of 1 1 add i t ional ride-down" in a l l cases . As
the sever i t y of the accident increas e s , the shear capsule separation i s
l e s s and l e s s a good refle c t i on of extra ride-down , a s the shear bracket
s upport s tructure moves due to veh i c le def o rmation. I t is our experience
that above an ETS of about S O Km/h the s upporting s tructure is normally
severely d i s torted in the fie l d . Table 3 records the measured shear
capsule separat i ons in our s amp le .

4 01
 Categories of 2 . 5 ems separation and above should b e eonsidered to be
usually a eomb inat i on of supporting s trueture movement and eo lumn co l l aps e .
The part p l ayed by eolumn e o l l apse in the larger measurements i s sma l l .

Of the e ight eases reeorded w i th eapsule separa t i on in exeess of 2 . 5 ems ,

s ix are known t o involve fatal ehes t inj uries from the s teering sys tem,
whi l s t the inj uries in o ther two eas e s are unknown at presen t .

Tab le 4 ( a) tabulates ehe s t and abdominal inj ury sever i ty agains t

e s t imated Equivalent Te s t Spee d , for unr e s t rained drivers impaet ing axi a l
e o l l ap s e sys tems . T ab le 4 ( b ) indieates the r e l a t i onship b e tween the s ame
parame t ers for "Capri" type · s teering sys tems .

The number of eases d e s e r ibed in these t ab le s i s smaller than in the

previous s e e t i ons as eomp le t e med i e al data is only available on a proport ion
of the a e e i dents at present .

Cons ideration of Tab les 3 and 4 ( a) shows that axi a l eol lapse sys tems
are n o t effe e t ively limi t ing the loads on dr iver s ' ehe s ts to be low s e r i ous
inj ury leve l . The sequenee of events in real l i f e , during imp ae t , whieh
leads to this f a i lure , is thought t o be as f o l l ows : frontal damage to the
vehi e le b e g ins and the b o t tom of the eo lumn , adj aeent to the toepan , under­
goes s ome deformation which is non-axial w i th respeet to the colunm . When
the dr iver eontaets the wheel , the te les coping s e e t i ons in the eolunm are
already loeked . A large load i s developed be tween the s te e r ing wheel and
the drive r ' s ehe s t which gives r i s e to a eons iderable bending moment on the
eolunm wh i eh , in turn , eauses further bending and loeking. As the loads
r i s e the s teering whee l begins to deform giving r i s e to load eoneen t r a t i o n ,
thus e f fee t ively lowering the load wh ieh e an b e tolera ted by the ehe s t
wi thout injury ( S ee F i gure 1) .

Tab le 4 (b ) shows the performanee of the ' deformab le ean ' type s y s t em
in the f i e l d . This s y s t em , ab s orbing energy b y bending the e an d i r e e t ly
behind the whee l , and the eolumn at i t s upper supporting br acke t , i s shown
t o b e apparen tly highly effeet ive in terms o f preventing inj ury , even in the
h i ghe s t energy frontal impaets in the present s amp le . The sequenee of
events dur ing impaet with thi s s y s tem i s thought to be as fol lows : the
toepan is d i s torted by erush to the vehiele and the column inereases i t s
angle t o the horizontal . The driver now moves on t o the whee l wh i eh
al igns i t s e l f with h i s ehe s t under t o lerable loads . The wel l padded spokes
and the rim s t ay in the s ame p l ane thus spreading the load we l l over a
large are a , and a l l owing a h i gh force to be t olerated on the ehe s t without
inj ury . Our laborat ory work has shown that a peak load of around 2 , 500 lb s
i s generated when this whee l and eolumn are s truck under t e s t eondi t ions
laid down in FMVSS 203 ( S e e F i gure 2) .

l t should be s tressed at this point that b oth the s e bas i e des i gns of
s teering sys t em eomp ly w i th FMVSS 203 , although one has been shown to b e
ineffe e t i ve in the f ie ld wh i l s t the other is apparen t ly h i ghly effeet ive .
The appropr i atene s s of present s tandards tes ting procedures t o reflect the
true inj ury protee t i on/hazard offered by s teering sys tems mus t , therefore ,
be que s t i oned .
 Howeve r , be fore considering work carried out to inve s t igate the
s tandards tes t ing procedure s , a few other po ints should be made concerning
the field results .

FMVSS 204 i s des i gned to limit dynam i c horizontal intrusion o f the

s teering sys tem into the pas s enger compartment during frontal impac t s .
Both groups o f sys tem in this s tudy l imited intrusion effect ively unt i l
the seve r i ty o f the accident caused the ins trument panel to swing b ack
towards the drive r . In thi s s ituation a l l design s al lowed considerable
intrus i on . The " C ap r i " type sys tem with a s o l i d column shows greater
ver t i cal movement o f the centre of the s teering wheel than do the axi a l
col l ap s e sys tems , but this e l evation o f the wheel doe s n o t seem to be
associ ated with a h i gh incidence of facial damage . It i s thought that
the r e l at ive timing of the driver and column movement i s a very impor tant
fac tor in determining whether facial injury i s a prob lem in thi s s ituation .
I t i s f e l t that ver t i cal deflection o f the s teering sys tem due to vehicle
crush may be come more important in s i tuations involving the lap/diagonal
s e at belted drive r , where head cont acts with the s teering wheel are
common ( 2 1 ) .

Final ly , an impor tant p o int to emerge from th i s f ield s tudy is the very
severe hazard t o the lower l imb s , presented by the s t i f f supporting
s t ructures f i t ted in conjunction with axial col l ap s e systems . Th i s
s tructure i s p laced in the knee impact are a , in many current cars , and has
been seen to be respons ible for very severe inj ur ies which have a high
recovery time and have many associated lang term problems .

THE STANDARDS TESTING PROCEDURE

The previous s e c t ions have shown that two b a s i c designs of s teering

sys tem, which under t e s t con d i t ions produce s imilar resul ts , apparently
provide very d i fferent prote c t i on to the unrestrained driver in real l i f e .
The whole ab i li ty o f the s t andards tes t ing procedure to reflect the inj ury
p o tential of a sys tem i s , there fore , in doub t .

A s e r i e s o f t e s t s i s now under way , at B irmingham, des igned to explore

the corre l a t i on between accident per formance of the systems and the results
of t e s ts carried out in accordance with FMVSS 203 . This t e s t programme
1s not yet comp leted but the fo l l owing p o ints can b e made :

1) Damage to the two groups of systems , produced under test cond i t ions as
s p e c i f ied in FMVSS 2 0 3 , is comp le t e ly d i fferent to that ob s e rve d in
real acciden t s . The 1 1 C apri11 type sys tem experiences ax i a l compres s i on
under tes t , wh i l s t in the field the c an and column bend . The axial
co l l ap s e sys tems give cons iderab le shear cap s u le Separat i on under tes t ,
whereas they give no s i gn i f icant c o l lapse , from the top , in the f i e l d .
These differences are thought t o indicate b as ic faults i n the present
s t andards tes ting procedures .

11 0 3
2) F i e ld d amage to the " Capri" type sys tem can be accurately reproduced
under tes t , by increasing the angle be tween the column and the
An in·crease of 10 above the s t andard ins t a l l a t ion
horizonta l . °
angle i s s uf f i cient to produce bending o f the can , as opposed to
axial comp re s s i on (see Figure 2 ) .

3) FMVSS 203 and 204 do not detect any interaction between primary d amage
to the system, caused by veh i c le crus h , and the ab i l ity of that sys tem
to c ontrol a s ub s equent driver ' s imp ac t . The sequence o f loading o f
the axial col l ap s e c o lumns , descr ibed e a r l i e r , shows that this inter­
action is of cons iderable importance .

4) Test ing columns at their ins tallat i on ang le with an upright torso i s
unre al i s t i c , as i t does no t t ake into account e i ther the dynamic
movement of the· co lumn or the fact that the drive r ' s torso is usually
not upright when he h i t s the whee l . The tors o moves forward at
approximately the s eat b ack angle in the absence of any early knee
impacts . These two factors comb ine to give a much s teeper e f fe ctive
column angle at impact than i s normally tes ted .

5) As acciden t s ever i ty increases , the dynamic movement o f the column

increases . l t i s therefore felt that i f a sys tem is to provide
protect ion r ight through the range of accident severi t ies , legislat ion
should require a more or less uniform column performance from the
sys tem under tes t , moun ted at i t s ins t a l l at i on ang l e , and al s o , at
any larger angle through to the ins tallat i on ang le p lus , perhap s , 30° .
Als o , t o cater for the non-axial loading seen in the f i e l d , sys tems ,
when viewed in p l an , should exhib i t uniformity o f per formance w i th the
colwnn incl ined at any angle wi thin an ar c , of perhaps , 20 ° e ither
s ide of its usual p o s i t ion .

6) lt is felt that peak load is not a good criteria on which to a s s e s s

inj ury . The d i s tribut i on o f t h i s load appears t o b e a t l e a s t as
important as i ts peak value in determining inj ury in pract i ce .

l t should b e noted that the speed d i s tribut i on in the two s amp les are
not s i gni f i cantly d i f ferent at a 5% level of confidence , as determined
by the Kolmoguruv Smi rnov tes t . However , no s t at i s t i ca l ly
s i gn i f i cant d i f f e rence in the inj ury levels can be demons trated on
present s amp le s i ze s . l t is hoped that an increased number of cases
in b o th groups wi l l enab le s i gni f i cant resu l t s to b e produce d , b e fore
too long . When such results are ava i l ab l e , it i s further hoped that
definite mod i f i cat ions to the tes t procedures , and injury cri ter i on
can be s ugges ted , t o improve the very unre a l i s t i c test s i tuation that
e x i s t s at present .

CONCLUSIONS

Axial co llap s e s t e ering sys tems , as f i t ted in B r i t i s h cars , have been

shown not to provide any s i gn i f i cant add i t i onal r i de-down through column
co l l aps e , for the unre s trained drive r , in real accidents . Systems
u t i l i z ing a deformab le c an directly behind the whe e l , appear to provide
good pro te c t i on agains t ehe s t inj ury throughout the comp lete range of
accident s ever i ties , seen in the present samp le .

Accident damage to both groups o f s teering system has been shown to

be comp le t e ly d i f ferent from that produced under normal test condi t i ons ,
and the reasons for these d i f ferences have been exp lained . S ome
modi fication to present te s t procedures have been s uggested and it i s
hoped that further improvements w i l l be proposed when the s tudy i s
comp leted .

REFERENCES

1) MARQUIS D . P . ( 19 6 7 ) "The General Motors Energy Ab s orbing Column"

SAE New York . Paper No . 670037 .

2) GADD C . W , PATRICK L . M . ( 19 6 8 ) "Sys tem versus laborat ory imp act

tes ts for e s t imating inj ury hazard'' SAE New York . P aper N o . 68005 3 .

3) SKELLS P . C . ( 19 6 7 ) "The General Motors Energy Ab s orbing Column"

Proceedings o f lOth S tapp Car Crash Conference . SAE New York .
Paper N o . 660785 p 1 - 1 3 .

4) HUELKE D . F , CHEWNING W . A . ( 19 6 8 ) "The Energy Absorbing S teering

Column" Highway S afety Research Ins t i tu t e , The Univers ity of Michigan
Ann Arb o r . HSRI Report No. B i o- 7 .

5) PATRICK L . M , VAN KIRK D . J . ( 19 6 9 ) " Corre lation o f acciden t and

laboratory impacts t o energy absorbing s teer ing a s s emb l ie s " SAE
New York. P aper No . 690 185 .

6) LUNDSTROM L . C , CICHOWSKI W . G , HUELKE D . F , CH.EWNING W . A , PATRICK L . M,

VAN KIRK D . J , GARRETT J . W . ( 19 6 9 ) "Energy Ab s orbing S teering
Co lumn s uc ce s s fully reduces inj ury but new impact patt erns emerge"
SAE Journal Va l . 77 N o . 5 May p 6 0- 6 4 .

7) NELSON W . D , WILSON R . A . ( 1 9 6 8 ) " F i e ld Accident Research" Proceedings

of General Motors Corporation Automotive Safety Seminar . July 1 1 - 12 .
Section 1 1 .

8) MARQUIS D . P , RASMUSSEN T . ( 19 6 8) " S tatus o f energy ab s o rp t i on in

s t eering columns " Proceedings of General Motors Corporation
Automotive Seminar . July 1 1 - 1 2 Sect ion 1 2 .

9) HUELKE D . F , CHEWNING W . A . ( 19 69 ) "Accident Inve s tigations o f the

Per formance Characte r i s t ics of Energy Ab s orbing S teering Columns "
SAE New York . P aper N o . 690 1 8 4 .

10) GLOYNS P . F . ( 19 7 2 ) "A review of human tolerance to impact damage w i th

special reference to the effectiveness o f energy absorbing s teering
sys tems in British cars" Qualifying thes i s , Mas te r of S cience ,
Department o f Trans portation and Environmental P l anning. Univers i ty
of Birmingham. July .

405
 S � New York .
1 1 ) ADAMS D , CAS SLE R . S . ( 19 70) 11 Chrys ler energy absorbing an t i - the f t
s teering co lumn" P aper N o . 70000 1 .

1 2 ) VOIGT G . E , WILFERT K . ( 19 6 9 ) "Mechanisms of inj uri e s to unres trained

drivers in head-on c o l l i s ions" Proceedings of 1 3 th S t app Car Crash
Conference . SAE New York . Paper N o . 69081 1 . p . 2 9 5-3 1 3 .

13) LANGE W . ( 19 7 1 ) "Severe frontal c o l l i s ions and res u l t ing l.IlJ Uries with
and wi thout · res training devices" AGARD Conference pre-print N o . 88
on Linear Acce lerations ( Impact Type ) . NATO June C-5 .

1 4 ) HUELKE D . F , SHERMAN H . W , ( 19 7 2 ) " S ome inj ury mechan isms in new car
co l l i s ions " Proceedings of 1 5 th AAAM Conference SAE New York p . 8- 2 6 .

1 5 ) NAHUM A . M, SIEGEL A . W , BROOKS S . ( 19 7 0) "The reduction i n co l l is ion

inj uries : P as t , Present and Future" Proceedings of the 14th S t app
Car Crash Conference . SAE New York Paper N o . 70089 5 . p . 1- 4 3 .

16) GI FFEN W . ( 19 7 3 ) " A review o f seat b e l t effec tivenes s and inve s t i g-

a t i on of poten t i a l improvements including passive sys tems" Fourth
International Technical Conference on Experimental S afety Veh i c le s .
Kyoto , Japan . March .

1 7 ) LEVINE D . N , CAMPBELL B . J . ( 19 7 2 ) 11Effectiveness o f Lap Seat Belts and

the Energy Absorbing S teering System in the Reduction o f Injuries"
Journal o f Safety Research Vo l . 4 . No. 3 N a t i onal S afety Coun c i l
Chicago p 106- 1 1 8 .

18) TROSIEN K . R , PATRICK L . M. ( 19 7 1 ) " S teering wheel airbag c o l l is ion

performance" SAE New York P aper N o . 7 10020.

19) PATRICK L . M, NYQUIST G . W , TROSIEN K . R . ( 19 7 2 ) " S afety ·Performance of

shaped s teering a s s emb ly airbag" Proceedings o f 1 6 th S t app Car Crash
Conference SAE New York Paper N o . 7209 7 6 .

20) SEARLE J . ( 19 7 2 ) "The effect .Qf s t eering column des ign on the
inj uries received by drivers in road acciden t s " Ph . D . The s i s .
Research · Group in Traf f i c S tudies , Univers ity Col lege , London.

2 1) MACKAY G , M , BULL J . P , GLOYNS P . F . ( 19 7 3 ) 11The Corr e l a t i on o f

Propo s e d Inj ury Criteria with Accident Data" T o be presented a t the
Cran f i e ld Conference on Vehicle S afety Legis l ation . Ins t i tute of
Mechan ical Engineers , London .

·-·
,.
TABLE 1 SAMPLE STRUCTURE BY MAKE AND MODEL

Axial Col lapse Sys tems

Number o f
Total unrest rained
Vehicle Make and Model Number drivers

Ford Cor tina Mk I I I 33 24

Vauxhal l Vi ctor FD 21 15
Vauxhal l Viva HB 19 17
Vauxhall Viva HC +
o ther ' mesh ' columns 12 11

Total - a l l models 85 67

Three Spake "Energy Ab s orbing'' Whee l

Number o f
Total unres trained
Vehicle Make and Model Numb er drivers
Ford Capri 33 26
Ford Zodiac 3 3
Ford E s cort 9 5
Total - all models 45 34

TABLE 2 SEX AND AGE DISTRIBUTIONS OF UNRESTRAINED DRIVERS IN SAMPLE

a) Drivers impacting axial col lapse systems
Age Numbers
(Year s ) o f drivers
Male 65 17-25 9
Female 2 2 6 - 49 27
50 + 9
Total 67 Unknown 22

b) Drivers impacting "Cap r � ' type sys tems

Age Numbers
(Year s ) o f drivers
Male 33 17-25 4
Female 1 2 6 - 49 15
50 + 4
Total 34 Unknown 11

407
TABLE 3 MEASURED SHEAR CAPSULE SEPARATION IN SAMPLE

Shear Capsule ETS Range Km/h

Separ a t i on ( cms ) 0-30 30-50 50-80 80-100 Total

0-0 . 5 41 6 2 0 49

0 . 5-2 . 5 6 2 1 1 10

2 . 5- 5 . 0 1 1 1 1 4

5 . 0- 7 . 5 0 0 3 0 3

Unknown 0 0 1 0 1
 TABLE 4

a) CHE S T AND ABDOMINAL INJURIES SUFFERED BY UNRE STRAINED DRIVERS

IMPACTING AXIAL COLLAPSE STEERING SYSTEMS . 50 GASE S .

7 1 1 2 1 1 2

6 1 1

4 1

3 1 1

2 1 , 2

1 '} 7

0 1 12 9 ]
0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60- 70 70-80 80-100
ETS Km/h
b) CHE S T AND ABDOMINAL INJURIE S SUFFERED BY UNRE S TRAINED DRIVERS
IMPACTING " CAPRI" TYPE THREE SPOKE WHEELS . 33 GASE S .

5 1

2 2 1

1 7 1 1 1

1 8 � 4 1
0 �

0-10 10-20 20-30 40-50

30-40 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-100
ETS Km/h
* As for AIS except category 7 ref ers to " in s tantaneous" death,
category 6 i s death within 24 hours , 5 i s survival uncertain, as
be fore , and includes death af ter 24 hours or mor e .

4 09
FI GURE 1 . A damaged axi a l c o l l ap s e sys tem removed from a
Ford :tvfi< I I I Cor t i n a . The p r imary and s e condary b ends in
the sys tem are c le a r . Shear c ap s u l c s ep ar a t i on i n th i s
c a s e was 7 cms whereas the convo l u t e d s e c t i on was only
shor tened b y · 1 . 5 cms . The dri ve r r e c e i ved f a t a l ehe s t
inj u r i e s ( Seve r i ty 0 7 on mod i f i e d AI S )
'

4 ' ,1 l
1 lli

FIGURE 2 . A damaged " de f o rmab le can" sys tem, removed from a

Ford Capr i , showing b end ing of can and c o l umn w i th l i t t le
damage to the whe e l r i m and spokes . ( B a ckground) . S im i l ar

°
damage p r oduced under mod i f i ed tes t con d i t i ons . C ol umn
angle used was 10 more than normal ins t a l l a t i on ang l e
(Fore ground) .

.J