Evaluation of MASH Test Vehicles

The Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) requires full-scale crash testing of roadside features using worst practical impact conditions, which are supposed to be representative of the composition of vehicles involved in run-off-road crashes and roadside departure speeds and angles. For this research effort, the composition of the United States vehicle fleet was investigated using three data sources: state Department of Transportation (DOT) crashes; state and national vehicle registrations; and new vehicle sales. New vehicle sales were the most convenient and economical data source, and was determined to be representative of both crash and registration data; therefore analysis was recommended using new vehicle sales. A sales-based cumulative distribution for new vehicle weights was used to identify the 5th and 95th percentile weights to update criteria for the 1100C small car and 2270P pickup truck, respectively. The 5th percentile weight was determined to be 2,800 lb and 4-door, gas-powered, base trim candidate small car options were recommended. Relatively few pickup truck options were identified at the 95th percentile weight of 5,850 lb, and because recent 2018 and 2019 model year pickup truck weights were much lower for Chevrolet and Ram models, a 92.5 percentile weight of 5,400 lb was selected, and a pickup truck with four-wheel drive (4WD), ½-ton suspension, and crew cab trim was recommended. Recommendations were provided to update the 1500A mid-size car; it was recommended that compact (crossover) utility vehicles (CUVs) be considered as they accounted for 40% of all new vehicle sales in 2017. A crash test pilot program should be implemented to begin testing of the recommended MASH small and large passenger vehicles. Updated MASH passenger vehicle properties and a method for continually updating vehicle selection criteria are herein recommended.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3918
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Research is complete; the final report is available at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-07_372_final.docx.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $90000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-07, Task 732

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Lincoln, Nebraska  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Stolle, Cody

• Start Date: 20180927
• Expected Completion Date: 20200930
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash tests; Evaluation and assessment; Highway safety; Manuals; Roadside; Test vehicles
• Identifier Terms: AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware; American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01767980
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-07, Task 732
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Mar 24 2021 10:31AM