Development of a New Dummy Neck that is Biofidelic in Rollover Crashes: Catastrophic spinal injuries with quadriplegia in rollover crashes are a direct result of head interaction with the vehicle structure. The rapid intruding weak roofs push the head of the occupant down causing the neck to bend and compress beyond physiological limits, which results in tearing of ligaments and disruption of the vertebral bodies. To date, there are U.S. regulatory occupant protection requirements for frontal and side impact crashes, but not for rollovers. Rollover crashworthiness is assessed by a quasi-static test, FMVSS 216 of an unoccupied vehicle.

The anthropomorphic test dummy that we primarily use is a 50th percentile adult male Hybrid III dummy. It is the size of an average adult male (5'10" and 171lbs). The Hybrid III dummy is equipped with upper and lower neck that record the amount of force that impacts the dummy's head, how long the force is applied to the head, as well as how far the neck bends as a result of that force. Occupant motion was recorded by high-speed video.