Human factors research in motor vehicle occupant restraint systems

The US national program in highway and motor vehicle safety has provided a new stimulus to human factors research by agencies of the Federal Government. As early as 1957, McFarland and Moore described areas of application of this discipline in a series of articles entitled, "Human Factors in Highway Safety". An important area included in their list was the protection of occupants of a motor vehicle from injury during a crash. This paper will describe some results of human factors research in motor vehicle occupant restraint systems by the Office of Vehicle Systems Research in the National Bureau of Standards.