CRASH TEST

It’s easy to gauge the safety of a house. The strength of the doors and windows will indicate that. But what happens inside a four-wheeled vehicle! Mere doors and windows don’t protect the passengers sitting inside the car. There are multiple methods that have been incorporated by the auto companies in order to address this common concern. Seat belts, airbags, ABS, EBD and collapsible steering are all such items that aim to improve the safety index of a passenger car. Now, how does a company or an auto association regulate this index? The answer is crash tests. There are various forms of crash tests that are pressed upon the vehicles and the effects are rated by experts depending on the damage done to the dummy sitting behind the wheels. 

The countries across the world have resorted to various acceptance levels of this rating, largely depending upon the development of the domestic auto industry.

The various forms of crash testing are:-

• Frontal 
•  Frontal off-set
• Side on
• Steering impact
• Seat-belt anchorage
• Rear impact
• Roof strength
• Roll over testing
• Component testing like- a.     Pedestrian; b.      Child safety

The testing methods of some of the above mentioned ones are given below:-

FRONTAL

·         40 % ± 20 mm overlap in 56 km/h. (EU); 30 mph 0^o ± 30^o (USA)

·         Deformable barrier (AL honeycomb).

·          Two Hybrid III dummies in the front seats (injury criteria).

·         No door is allowed to open during test and the front doors may not bejammed.

·         It should be possible to open at least one door per passenger row without tools after crash and the maximum force needed to unbuckle the crash test dummy is 60 N. Further on, the dummy must be removable without adjusting the seats.

·         The fuel leakage may not exceed 30 g/min.

India follows the USA version.

SIDE IMPACT

·         A movable deformable barrier (MBD) weight of 950 ± 20 kg

·         Ground clearance: 300 ± 5 mm

·         Velocity: 50 ± 1 km/h (EU); The barrier strikes the vehicle oblique to simulate a speed of

30 mph for the striking vehicle and 15 mph p g p for the struck vehicle.(USA)

·         EUROSID crash test dummy

India follows the USA version but only the static impact

REAR COLLISION

For this test, a moving barrier of weight 4000 lbs and speed 30 mph is made to hit the car.

COUNTRY – WISE CRASH TESTING REGULATION

India

·         Frontal crash

·         steering impact

·         seat-belt anchorage

Europe

·         Steering Mechanism Impact

·         Seat Belt Anchorage

·         Restraints and Safety Belts

·         Seat Anchorages & Head Restraints

·         Non-incorporated Head Restraints

·         Rear-End Collision

·         Child Restraints in Power Driven Vehicles

·         Frontal Collision Safety

·         Occupant Protection in Lateral Collision

United States of America

·         Interior head impact

·         Interior head impact (Pole)

·         Interior head impact (Upper)

·         Head Impact

·         Head Restraints

·         Steering Control Impact

·         Steering Control Rearward Displacement

·         Seating

·         Occupant Crash Protection

·         Seat Belt Assemblies

·         Anchorages for Seat Belt Assemblies

·         Child Restraint System

·         Protection from Side-Impact

·         Protection from Rear-Impact

·         Anchorage Systems for Child Restraints

KOREA

·         Full-wrap frontal collision test (against a rigid barrier at 56km/h)

·         Offset frontal collision test (against a deformable barrier at 64km/h)

·         Side collision test (against a moving barrier at 55km/h)

·         Pedestrian (head and leg) protection performance test

·         Neck protection test in a rear-end collision

·         Braking performance test

·         Roll over test

CHINA

·         Full-wrap frontal collision test (including AF05 passenger in rear seats)(against a rigid barrier at 50km/h)

·         Offset frontal collision test (including AF05 passenger in rear seats)(against a deformable barrier at 56km/h)

·         Side collision test (against a moving barrier at 50km/h)

·         Installation seatbelt reminder, ISO-FIX anchorage assessment

AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND

·         Offset frontal collision test (against a deformable barrier at 64km/h)

·         Side collision test (optionally pole test)(against a pole at 29km/h)

·         Pedestrian (head and leg) protection performance test

·         Installation of ESC equipment

This clearly shows that cars available in the Indian market are not the safest. ARAI needs to bring in stricter norms for the companies to adhere. Else, the customers will continue to suffer from lack of safety in the cars.