Previous studies have shown steering hub airbags to be effective in reducing the rate of serious
head and facial injuries for drivers of passenger cars involved in frontal impacts. However, real world
accident data shows that approximately 3% (50 out of 1680) of drivers in a sample of crashes received
an AIS 3+ head injury despite a steering hub airbag having deployed. For struck-side occupants with
deployed head protection 12% had an AIS 3+ head injury. This paper examines the nature and
mechanism of the specific head injuries together with the surrounding crash characteristics in order to
identify further occupant protection requirements beyond the scope and capability of the airbag. The
in-depth case review has revealed that, among cases within the CCIS database, only 0.5% of those
with deployed frontal head protection but 12% of those with deployed struck-side head protection
show potential for improvement in occupant head protection