Comparison of occupant restraint performance measures for crash injury prediction.

Current procedures for estimating occupant risk in real-world vehicle crashes do not account for the performance of the occupant restraints, such as seatbelts and airbags. This paper compares the ability of two restraint performance metrics, the ridedown efficiency and the restraint quotient, to predict occupant injury as measured by a crash test dummy. The responses of crash test dummies were analyzed in 25 full-frontal barrier crash tests. Ridedown efficiency was found to have an inverse relationship with respect to injury risk while the restraint quotient was found to have a positive relationship. Using linear regression analysis, the restraint quotient was found to offer an advantage over the ridedown efficiency for the prediction of head injury, chest injury, and combined head and chest injury.