The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is advancing pedestrian safety by proposing a new rule to reduce fatalities and serious injuries among pedestrians struck by vehicles. The proposed rule would establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requiring new passenger vehicles be designed to reduce the risk of serious-to-fatal injuries in child and adult pedestrian crashes.
The proposed standard would establish test procedures simulating a head-to-hood impact and performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury. NHTSA estimates the new standard would save 67 lives a year. The test procedures also include the use of human-like headforms to measure the head-to-hood impact. The headforms NHTSA proposes to use in testing the new standard represent a diverse range of pedestrians, from a small child to an adult.
