Side Pole Impact Test
Some side impacts involve a vehicle travelling sideways into rigid roadside objects such as trees, poles or road infrastructure. Such accidents are severe and the frequency of death or serious injury is high. This type of assessment also covers cases in which the vehicle is impacted from the side by a vehicle whose front end can easily reach the height of the tested vehicle’s roof, such as large pickup trucks or medium and heavy commercial vehicles.
The vehicle is launched laterally at 32 km/h towards a rigid and narrow pole. The vehicle is positioned at an oblique angle (75º) to the direction of the movement. A new, medium-sized adult side impact dummy (WSID) is placed in the driver's or passenger's seat.
This is a severe test that assesses the vehicle’s ability to protect the head, chest, abdomen, and pelvis in this type of impact. As the loading on the car is so localised, deformation can be very high and the pole can penetrate deeply into the passenger compartment. An effective restraint system is therefore necessary to prevent serious injuries. Head protection airbags – often curtain airbags mounted above the side windows – have become a common solution but their design and implementation must be extremely precise to ensure that these devices perform effectively. Head protection provided by thorax/head airbags mounted in the seat has been shown to be less effective than curtain airbags at protecting occupants in a pole impact compared to curtain airbags, and is gradually being phased out by the industry.