Research has shown that dynamic testing under Appendix 1 is more demanding than the static testing under Appendix 5. As a result, approvals based upon static testing are not equivalent to approvals based on dynamic testing. This proposal, therefore, would delete Appendix 5. In addition, this proposal amends Appendix 1 by reducing the forward movement of the head of the manikin to 1.2 m in alignment with UN Regulation No. 14. Further, the proposal would limit the movement of the seat anchorages to 100 mm to ensure a minimum residual space for the passenger between the seats. Lastly, to ensure that seat fixations are reliably fastened after relocation, the proposal would require the necessary information to be marked directly on the seat and provided in the owner’s manual.
24. GRSP resumed discussion on the proposal tabled by the expert from Germany (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2018/10), aimed at removing the static tests and improving the dynamic test on seat anchorages. The expert from Germany continued provide evidence to GRSP through a new presentation (GRSP-63-32 and a Video Presentation No. 1) to support his proposal. He stated that the current requirements of the UN Regulation allows the approval of seat systems in busses on the basis of a static test procedure which does not provide an adequate level of protection compared with the dynamic procedure. He added that tests with one seat model showed that occupants could be exposed to a high risk of death or serious injury in an accident from the collapse of the seat fixation. Finally, he informed GRSP that comparable seat fixations failure had been observed in bus accidents, and occupants had already been killed or seriously injured. He added that the German administration is concerned that these severe accidents could happen again in the future. The expert from the Russian Federation proposed to postpone the decision to the December 2018 session of GRSP. He justified his recommendation on the lack of research on the issue. He added that the Russian Federation considered it premature to exclude static tests from UN Regulation No. 80 and proposed to revise this type of test. He also suggested amending the dynamic test methodology according to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2018/10 and to the outcome of research conducted in the Russian Federation. Finally, he announced his intention to present these research results, accompanied with a draft amendment to UN Regulation No. 80 at the December 2018 session of GRSP. Several experts raised a study reservation to verify further statistical data. The expert from OICA also requested more time to prepare a revised proposal and requested to keeping GRSP-63-17 as a reference in the agenda of the next session.
25. GRSP agreed to resume discussion at the December 2018 session and invited experts to reach an agreement on this subject at that session.
51. The expert from Germany gave two presentations (GRSP-62-35 and GRSP-62-36) to introduce a proposal of amendment (GRSP-62-12) to the UN Regulation aimed at removing the static tests and improving the dynamic test on seat anchorages. Referring also to the video presentations Nos. 1 and 2, he provided evidence that seat anchorages tested statically do not reach the same level of safety as that tested dynamically and, therefore, they cannot be considered as equivalent. GRSP agreed to resume discussion on this subject at its May 2018 session and requested the secretariat to distribute GRSP-62-12 with an official symbol.
| GRSP-62-35 | |
| GRSP-62-36 | |
| GRSP/2018/10 |