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Re: crumple zones

Most German car manufacturers have changed their strategy for crash
protection.  The idea of crumple zone absorbing energy during a crash has
two views.  Previous German car manufacturers had soft crumple zone so the
car would absorb the energy on the collision.  Further investigation
discovered that in a high speed crash (>40 mph) the crumple zone becomes a
projectile into the passenger cell since the energy from the crash exceeded
the energy absorption limit of the crumple zone.  So if the crumple zone is
strengthen then minor injuries increase in low speed accidents but
fatalities decrease in high speed accidents.  Fatalities are prioritized
over minor injuries.  In large part U.S. car manufacturers are still using
the soft crumple zone idea.

>The European and U.S. crash tests are at complete odds with respect to
>their results; U.S. cars do better on the U.S. tests, and European cars do
>better on the European tests.

_________________________________________________
John Coffin
Senior Engineer
coffin@domain.elided
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