Background In 1994, NHTSA published a study that showed significant correlations between New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) scores - HIC, chest g's and femur loads - and the fatality risk of belted drivers in actual head-on collisions. The crash data base for that study included model year 1979-91 passenger cars. Only 5 percent of the cars in that data base were equipped with air bags, and light trucks were not included. Today, all new cars sold in the United States are equipped with air bags, and light trucks account for over 45 percent of new-vehicle sales.

ObjectiveStudy the relationship between NCAP scores and fatality risk in actual head-on collisions for passenger cars, light trucks and vans equipped with frontal air bags.

Proposed Approach The analyses in the 1994 study will be repeated with a data base that includes light trucks as well as passenger cars and contains a large proportion of vehicles equipped with air bags. The 1994 study compared the fatality risk of the two drivers in a head-on collision between a car with "good" NCAP scores and a car with "poor" scores, after adjustment for differences in the weights of the cars and the drivers' age and sex. The follow-up study will investigate if similar correlations between NCAP scores and fatality risk exist in vehicles equipped with air bags, and it will examine the interaction between air bags, NCAP performance and fatality risk. This evaluation can probably be completed within a year, since it is based on analyses of existing data.