Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Arlington, Virginia 22201, USA.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2011 Oct;12(5):500-7. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2011.585671.
To evaluate how well the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) side crash test ratings predict real-world occupant death risk in side-impact crashes.
The IIHS has been evaluating passenger vehicle side crashworthiness since 2003. In the IIHS side crash test, a vehicle is impacted perpendicularly on the driver's side by a moving deformable barrier simulating a typical sport utility vehicle (SUV) or pickup. Injury ratings are computed for the head/neck, torso, and pelvis/leg, and vehicles are rated based on their ability to protect occupants' heads and resist occupant compartment intrusion. Component ratings are combined into an overall rating of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor. A driver-only rating was recalculated by omitting rear passenger dummy data. Data were extracted from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and National Automotive Sampling System/General Estimates System (NASS/GES) for the years 2000-2009. Analyses were restricted to vehicles with driver side air bags with head and torso protection as standard features. The risk of driver death was computed as the number of drivers killed (FARS) divided by the number involved (NASS/GES) in left-side impacts and was modeled using logistic regression to control for the effects of driver age and gender and vehicle type and curb weight. Death rates per million registered vehicle years were computed for all outboard occupants and compared by overall rating.
Based on the driver-only rating, drivers of vehicles rated good were 70 percent less likely to die when involved in left-side crashes than drivers of vehicles rated poor, after controlling for driver and vehicle factors. Compared with vehicles rated poor, driver death risk was 64 percent lower for vehicles rated acceptable and 49 percent lower for vehicles rated marginal. All 3 results were statistically significant. Among components, vehicle structure rating exhibited the strongest relationship with driver death risk. The vehicle registration-based results for drivers were similar, suggesting that the benefit was not due to differences in crash risk. The same pattern of results held for outboard occupants in nearside crashes per million registered vehicle years and, with the exception of marginally rated vehicles, also held for other crash types.
Results show that IIHS side crash test ratings encourage designs that improve crash protection in meaningful ways beyond encouraging head protection side air bags, particularly by promoting vehicle structures that limit occupant compartment intrusion. Results further highlight the need for a strong occupant compartment and its influence in all types of crashes.
评估美国公路安全保险协会（IIHS）侧面碰撞测试评级在实际侧面碰撞事故中对乘员死亡风险的预测能力。
自 2003 年以来，IIHS 一直在评估乘用车的侧面耐撞性。在 IIHS 侧面碰撞测试中，车辆的驾驶员侧以垂直角度被移动的变形壁障撞击，该壁障模拟典型的运动型多用途车（SUV）或皮卡车。计算头部/颈部、躯干和骨盆/腿部的伤害等级，根据车辆保护乘员头部和抵抗乘员舱侵入的能力对车辆进行评级。部件等级组合成一个整体的优、良、中、差等级。通过忽略后排乘客假人数据，重新计算驾驶员单独的评级。数据从 2000 年至 2009 年的伤亡分析报告系统（FARS）和国家汽车抽样系统/综合估计系统（NASS/GES）中提取。分析仅限于驾驶员侧安全气囊具有头部和躯干保护作为标准配置的车辆。驾驶员死亡的风险计算为死亡驾驶员人数（FARS）除以左侧碰撞中涉及的驾驶员人数（NASS/GES），并使用逻辑回归进行建模，以控制驾驶员年龄和性别以及车辆类型和路缘重量的影响。计算了所有外侧乘员的每百万注册车辆年的死亡率，并根据整体评级进行比较。
基于驾驶员单独的评级，在控制驾驶员和车辆因素后，参与左侧碰撞的车辆评级为优的驾驶员死亡的可能性比车辆评级为差的驾驶员低 70%。与评级差的车辆相比，评级为可接受的车辆的驾驶员死亡风险降低了 64%，评级为边缘的车辆降低了 49%。所有 3 个结果均具有统计学意义。在各部件中，车辆结构评级与驾驶员死亡风险的关系最强。基于车辆注册的驾驶员结果相似，这表明该益处不是由于碰撞风险的差异所致。对于每百万注册车辆年的近侧碰撞的外侧乘员，同样的结果模式适用，并且除了边缘评级车辆外，对于其他碰撞类型也适用。
结果表明，IIHS 侧面碰撞测试评级以有意义的方式鼓励设计改进，而不仅仅是鼓励使用侧面头部安全气囊，尤其是通过促进限制乘员舱侵入的车辆结构来实现。结果进一步强调了对强大的乘员舱及其在所有类型碰撞中的影响的需求。
