This paper reports on an experimental investigation aimed at reducing the injury associated with head-on collisions between passenger vehicles and trucks, or other heavy vehicles.

Full-scale truck-to-car crash tests were performed using a prototype energy absorbing underride-resisting bumper bar system, at impact speeds ranging from 56 to 100 km/h. The system consists of a rigid barrier attached to the chassis by four telescopic struts incorporating ball joints at each end, making the assembly a pin-jointed mechanism. Energy absorption is via the plastic deformation of thinwall steel tubing undergoing inversion and buckling. The properties of the steel tubes were determined in quasi-static and dynamic tests at 30 km/h and 80 km/h. No strain rate sensitivity was detected in these tests. The results were therefore used to estimate the energy absorbed by the truck bumper bar system under full-scale test collisions.

From these initial tests it can be concluded that with suitable energy absorbing and underride-resisting truck bumper bars it is possible to significantly reduce the severity of head-on collisions.