The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: Severed Vehicle

Zygmunt M. Gorski (gorski@golden.net)
Tue, 1 Dec 1998 07:50:16 -0500 (EST)

As part of my 10 years as a contracted researcher to Transport Canada
I had the opportunity to assess the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards (CMVSS) which are essentially copies of the U.S. Federal Motor
Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), on perhaps 100 major collisions per
year. In addition, I had the opportunity to investigate a large number of
defect complaints for Transport Canada. In those years I encountered a
number of situations where vehicles became severed into "halves". Some
of these incidents could be attributed to corrosion and overwhelming
energy dissipation.

A significant number however were simply related to separations of the
sheet metal at various spot-welded sections at relatively low Delta-Vs.
We never had the opportunity to study each situation closely enough to
how the separations were initiated. In a number of incidents the spot-
welds simply ripped them-selves out of the edge of the sheet metal.

Some of the failures occurred at the A-pillar junction (Camaros/Firebirds)
but a large number occurred at the B-pillar junction. The B-pillar
separations are more important because the outboard floor anchor of the
front seat-belts would often travel with rear half while the buckle and
D-ring would remain attached with the front half. The results were
catestrophic. In one instance involving a Honda Civic the driver's
clothing was melted into the length of the seat-belt webbing like lip-
stick. The driver sustained fatal injuries.

Although complete separations bring immediate attention to the happening
there are many more incidents where only partial separations take place
but are unnoticed. Take a look at the next side-impacted vehicle you
investigate and note the number of separations which occur. In some
instances separations at intruding structural members can have a major
effect on occupant injury while in others complete separations may have
no significant effect on injury outcome.

Zygmunt M. Gorski
gorski@golden.net

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