Pedestrian Protection – Assessment of the U.S. Vehicle Fleet

Suntay, Brian; Stammen, Jason; Martin, Peter · 2019 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This study assesses the current state of pedestrian protection in the U.S. vehicle fleet and compares the safety performance of U.S. variants against their European counterparts for global vehicle models. The research was motivated by the need to understand how differing regulatory environments—specifically NHTSA’s Part 581 bumper damageability requirements in the U.S. versus Euro NCAP and UNECE Regulation No. 127 pedestrian safety standards in Europe—affect vehicle design and crashworthiness. The researchers tested nine vehicles, including passenger cars, SUVs, a minivan, and a pickup truck, using Euro NCAP pedestrian test procedures. These tests involved lower legform and upper legform impacts to the vehicle front end, as well as headform impacts to the hood and windshield. Five of the vehicles were "global" models with variants sold in Europe, allowing for a direct comparison with existing Euro NCAP data. The study analyzed scoring metrics such as tibia bending, knee injury assessment, and Head Injury Criterion (HIC) to evaluate performance. The results revealed significant disparities in pedestrian safety based on vehicle origin and size. Global vehicles consistently outperformed non-global vehicles marketed primarily in the U.S., with the lowest global vehicle score exceeding the highest non-global score. This advantage is attributed to hood underpinnings designed for European pedestrian safety standards. However, U.S. variants of global passenger cars showed marked degradation in lower legform tests compared to European variants, likely due to stiffer bumper components required to meet Part 581 damageability standards. In contrast, upper legform and headform performance was generally comparable between U.S. and European variants, as hood designs are not subject to conflicting U.S. regulations. Non-global vehicles, particularly large SUVs and pickup trucks, performed the worst across all metrics due to higher ride heights and lack of pedestrian-specific design features. The study concludes that while global vehicle platforms provide a baseline for better pedestrian protection, U.S. regulatory demands for bumper durability can compromise lower leg safety in passenger cars. Conversely, hood protection remains consistent across markets. The findings highlight the trade-offs between bumper damageability and pedestrian injury mitigation, suggesting that current U.S. regulations may inadvertently hinder the adoption of softer, more pedestrian-friendly bumper designs found in Europe.

Key finding

Global vehicles provided markedly better pedestrian protection than non-global U.S. vehicles, and while U.S. variants of global passenger cars performed worse in lower legform tests due to bumper regulations, their upper legform and headform protection was equivalent to or better than European variants.

Methodology

lab_experiment

Sample size: 9

Provenance

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• comparative international

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: standards test procedures