by Noel W Murray (Monash Univ., Australia)

This book explains how the car, as a structure, behaves in various types of accidents. In order to understand such behaviour the special features of car structures and the elementary physics of car collisions are explained. These ideas are the applied to roll-overs, side impacts, head-on collisions, etc. The reader is then shown how accidents can be analysed. The existing international rules for the design of car structures are also studied and it soon becomes apparent that these rules are inadequate in many respects. This is probably the main reason why racing drivers survive the severest accidents but many ordinary motorists do not survive crashes at one quarter of the speed.

• Introduction: About the Structure of a Motor Car
• The Physics of Impacts between Deformable Bodies
• Roll-over and Roof Strength
• Side Impacts
• Frontal Impacts
• Collisions into the Rear Ends of Cars
• Low-velocity Property-damage Accidents
• Loose Objects in Cars
• Conclusion