Performance of vehicle bumper systems with the EEVC/TRL pedestrian lower legform

In U.S. pedestrian crashes, serious lower extremity injuries are second only to head injuries in frequency. The Global Technical Regulation (GTR) for pedestrian safety uses the EEVC/TRL pedestrian lower legform to evaluate the risk of these injuries from bumper impact. In order to evaluate the level of pedestrian lower extremity protection offered by front bumpers in the U.S. fleet, NHTSA's Vehicle Research and Test Center (VRTC) conducted 40 pedestrian lower legform impact tests on 9 vehicles. These vehicles were selected to represent the U.S. fleet, with a focus on light trucks and vans. The goal was to generate an overall picture of current U.S. vehicle performance with respect to lower extremity protection requirements in the regulation. Results showed that pedestrian lower extremity protection was poor overall, with no vehicle meeting the GTR injury limits in all locations tested. One vehicle was able to meet the requirements by a wide margin in all but one impact location. Two other vehicles each had a single passing impact location. Results are consistent with prior results from legform testing on U.S. passenger cars. The full text of this paper may be found at: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv21/09-0318.pdf For the covering abstract see ITRD E145407.