Within the continuous development of automotive safety and increasingly stringent crash regulations under the Vision Zero initiative, physical crash testing remains essential for assessing occupant injury risk. This study focuses on the evaluation of occupant dynamics in full-overlap frontal collisions, based on real crash tests. Key parameters influencing injury severity, including impact speed, seat belt usages, and occupant anthropometry, were analyzed to identify worst-case scenarios. Frontal crash test protocols from regulatory and consumer programs were included in the analysis. Physical tests were conducted according to FMVSS 208 using Hybrid III 50th percentile male and 5th percentile female dummies. Both belt-restrained and unrestrained (unbelted) conditions were considered. Numerical simulations using LS-DYNA are used as a complementary tool to support and extend the interpretation of the experimental findings, particularly in assessing the influence of impact speed, seat belt usage, and occupant anthropometry on injury metrics. The results evaluate the factors with the greatest impact on injury risk and demonstrate the importance of physical frontal crash tests in the evaluation of the occupant protection. All experimental tests were carried out at IAV Vehicle Safety.

The proposed synchronized multi-sensor framework provides an experimental approach for integrated crash assessment by combining vehicle structural response, restraint-system loading, and occupant biomechanical measurements within a common temporal reference. The experimental campaign comprised two full-scale crash events involving three vehicles and six Hybrid III 50th percentile male ATD exposures: a front-to-rear vehicle collision with standard occupant positioning and a full-frontal rigid-barrier impact with forward-leaning out-of-position (OOP) occupants. Triaxial thoracic accelerations, seat belt forces, and B-pillar accelerations were recorded simultaneously using synchronized data acquisition systems. The frontal OOP configuration produced the highest longitudinal (X-axis) thoracic acceleration, approximately 62 g, and the highest measured local belt-segment force, 9.80 kN, whereas the rear-impacted vehicle exhibited the highest local B-pillar acceleration. These configuration-specific observations demonstrate the capability of the proposed framework to characterize structural, restraint-system, and occupant responses simultaneously across different full-scale crash configurations.