The core focus of VTTI’s Center for Injury Biomechanics (CIB) is to save lives. Through its injury mitigation research, the center strives to protect all persons who use all forms of transportation. However, the CIB is fundamentally concerned with surface transportation, including vulnerable road users such as female vehicle occupants and pedestrians.
The CIB studies injury mechanisms and tolerance to support efforts to improve vehicle crashworthiness. Using their crash sled, the center is currently exploring how to better protect rear-seat passengers in the event of a frontal crash. Previous studies have shown that rear-seat passengers are potentially more at risk in motor vehicle collisions, particularly older individuals. This, coupled with a hypothesized increased use of the rear seat in the future, has implications for the development and deployment of automated driving systems and associated occupant protection strategies.
Center director Warren Hardy cites a passion for saving lives as the motivation for his research, and he and his research team are doing their part in keeping travelers safer.
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