Examining Injuries to real people in real crashes is the ultimate way to validate improvements in crashworthiness as well as to determine where future priorities lie. Examination of U.K national statistics showed that, coincident with the introduction of airbags and better restraints there was a significant fall in the rates of killed/seriously injured car occupants as well as a significant fall in the number of car occupant fatalities.
Interrogation of the UK in-depth crash injury data for belted driver injury risk in frontal crashes showed substantial reductions in injury risk for the head in newer cars. Risk of serious injury to the chest, thigh and leg showed little change between older and newer vehicles despite controlling for occupant parameters
