VOLUME 12, NO. 3     MAY 1999

Making an impact on vehicular safety

Malcolm Ray

ach year, 225,000 people are involved in collisions in which a vehicle slides sideways into an object like a tree, utility pole or guardrail. One in three is injured and one in 100 is killed. Malcolm Ray, associate professor and White Family Professor of Civil Engineering, is changing all that.

Ray conducts research on impact-resistant cars and roadside structures more, such as light poles and guardrails. Ray designs roadside hardware, looks for new ways to evaluate it, and determines how well it actually performs. To do this, he examines real-world collisions and conducts crash tests at the Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory in McLean, Va. His research will ultimately result in guidelines, recommendations, and methods that allow departments of transportation to build and maintain safer roadways. "My goal is to make things people can hit and not get hurt," he says.

Ray is currently conducting projects for the Federal Highway Administration, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, and the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Side-impact crashes are far more dangerous than head-on collisions, he says. "Safety items such as air bags, seat belts and the like have vastly improved a driver's chances in a front-end collision. Even in a small car, there's about six feet of the vehicle that can crush before [the object] gets to you. In a side-impact crash, there's nothing between you and the outside except the window and the door. There's no space and nothing to protect you. These may not be the most common type of accidents, but when they happen, they are the most severe."

Through his research, Ray will develop specific tests and evaluation criteria for roadside hardware and similar tests and criteria for improving safety in side-impact crashes. He hopes they will become the standard for government and industry.