Glossary
Overall Crashworthiness: The three factors evaluated in the frontal
offset crash test -- structural performance, injury measures, and restraints/dummy
kinematics -- determine each vehicle's overall crashworthiness evaluation.
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Glossary
Structure/safety cage: Structural performance is based on measurements
indicating the amount and pattern of intrusion into the occupant compartment
during the offset test. This assessment indicates how well the front-end
crush zone managed the crash energy and how well the safety cage limited
intrusion into the driver space. Performance of the structure/safety
cage is a major component of each vehicle's overall evaluation.
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Glossary
Injury measures (head, neck, chest, both legs and feet): Obtained
from a 50th percentile male Hybrid III dummy in the driver seat, injury
measures are used to determine the likelihood that a driver would have
sustained injury to various body regions. Measures are recorded from
the head, neck, chest, and both legs and feet. Like structural performance,
this assessment also is a major component of each vehicle's overall
evaluation.
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Glossary
Restraints/dummy kinematics (movement): Significant injury risk
can result from undesirable dummy kinematics -- for example, partial
ejection from the occupant compartment -- in the absence of high injury
measures. This aspect of performance involves how safety belts, airbags,
steering columns, head restraints, and other aspects of restraint systems
interact to control dummy movement. Although this assessment is important,
it doesn't contribute as much as structural performance or injury measures
to each vehicle's overall evaluation.