WP.29/AC.3/28
Proposal to develop a new global technical regulation on pole side impact
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12. The expert from the United States of America informed GRSP about the outcome of the last meeting of the informal working group on the harmonization work of the World Side Impact Dummy (WorldSID) held in Seoul in October 2011. She announced the completion of a concrete proposal on the 50th percentile dummy within the expected schedule. She added that despite unforeseeable delays the group would also finalize a concrete proposal concerning the 5th percentile dummy in due time. GRSP agreed to resume discussion on this agenda item at its December 2012 session on the basis of new information to be provided by the informal working group.
12. Referring to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/28, the expert from Germany, on behalf of the Chair of the informal group on pole side impact test, introduced GRSP-48-20 including the first progress report of the group and its proposed terms of reference. He informed GRSP that the group scheduled several meetings for the year 2011: (i) week 28 February-4 March in Brussels, (ii) week 6-10 June in Washington DC and in (iii) September/October and December (dated unspecified).
13. GRSP agreed to provide comments on GRSP-48-20 in due time to the expert from Australia, in order to submit the proposal for preliminary consideration to WP.29 and AC.3 at their March 2011 sessions.
14. The expert from the United States of America introduced the second progress report (GRSP-48-40) of the informal group on the harmonization of side impact dummies and announced its submission as an Informal document for preliminary consideration to WP.29 and AC.3 at their March 2011 sessions.
125. The representative of Australia, chairing the informal working group on PSI, presented the second progress report of the group (WP.29-156-29).
126. He clarified that this report sought a change in the terms of reference of the informal working group to allow for a second phase of work on the world side impact dummy (WorldSID) 5th percentile female. He reported that this change was endorsed by GRSP at its December 2011 session. He stated that the informal working group had not met since he reported on its activities at the November 2011 session of AC.3. However, he announced that the fifth meeting of the informal working group would be held on 22-23 March in London (see para. 113), focusing on a revised draft UN GTR in detail, with the aim of submitting an initial draft to the May 2012 session of GRSP. He added that several presentations would be made during the meeting, including further crash tests undertaken
by a number of countries. He specified that the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) would give a presentation of its research, including on injury types, effectiveness of different airbag combinations and the benefits of a regulation. He clarified that, while pole side impacts were not as common as other crashes, they were frequently lethal. He said that MUARC’s work also revealed that injuries in pole side impacts involved very high societal costs frequently involving serious head injuries. He reported that a final first phase UN GTR would be presented to WP.29 and AC.3 for consideration and vote at their June 2013 sessions. He concluded that the sixth meeting of the informal working group was scheduled in the week before the June 2012 session of WP.29 in Munich.
127. The representative of The United States of America supported the revised terms of references for a two stage approach for developing the UN GTR to address the widest range of vehicle occupants.
128. AC.3 endorsed, in principle, the revised terms of references of the informal working group (see para. 32) and requested the secretariat to distribute WP.29-156-29 with an official symbol.
90. The representative of Australia, chairing the informal group on PSI, informed AC.3 that since his last update at the March 2012 session of AC.3, the informal working group had held its fifth and sixth meetings in London in late March and in Munich in the previous week. He informed AC.3 that a draft UN GTR had been presented to the May 2012 session of GRSP. He underlined the excellent recent progress on the draft UN GTR and the constructive approach adopted by all members of the informal working group. In particular he acknowledged Canada’s contribution to a large scale crash test programme undertaken with Australia. He stated that the work undertaken by the Monash University Accident Research Centre indicated that the UN GTR would produce major safety gains, due in part to the high proportion of head injuries in both pole side impacts and car-to-car crashes, and the high cost of serious head injuries. Insurance data indicated that the cost of head injuries could exceed notional cost of life as well imposing major societal burdens. He added that the UN GTR would have major benefits in many countries. He informed AC.3 that the major remaining issues were:
He informed AC.3 that the next meeting of the informal group would likely be held in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the next WorldSID meeting, in September or October 2012. He finally indicated that these meetings should set a definitive timetable for submission of final draft proposals on the WorldSID and Pole Side Impact UN GTRs to GRSP and AC.3.
91. The representative of OICA emphasized the importance of availability of WorldSID for the adoption of the UN GTR on Pole Side Impact, with which the Australian representative strongly concurred.
92. AC.3 adopted the second progress report of the informal working group (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2012/59).
12. The expert from Australia, on behalf of the Chair of the informal working group on a UN Global Technical Regulation (UN GTR) on pole side impact, introduced a proposal for a draft UN GTR on this subject (GRSP-51-16). He informed GRSP about the close collaboration with the informal working group on harmonization of side impact dummies. He added that the reference to the 3-D H Machine was provisional in the proposal and that in the future it should apply in the S.R.2 to keep harmonized tolerances of the seating position (see para. 5 of this report). He finally announced that the next meeting of the informal working group was scheduled on 20-21 June 2012.
13. GRSP recommended experts to send comments concerning GRSP-51-16 to the expert from Australia by 7 June 2012 for consideration at the next meeting of the informal working group.
14. The expert from the United States of America informed GRSP (GRSP-51-30) about the outcome of the last meeting of the informal working group on the harmonization work of the World Side Impact Dummy (WorldSID) held in London, on 21 March, 2012. She reported that the informal working group was confident to finalize the work for the 50th percentile dummy within the scheduled time. However, she indicated major issues remaining the readiness of the dummy: (i) the drawing package and user’s manual still need negotiation with the manufacturer for its availability, (ii) additional certification work is needed for the pelvis and (iii) further discussion was necessary on instrumentation for multi-axis thorax deflection.
15. The experts from OICA and UK suggested the same timeline for adopting the WorldSID and the UN GTR on pole side impact to make the dummy available to Contracting Parties. GRSP agreed to resume discussion on this agenda item at its December 2012 session on the basis of a proposal submitted by the informal working group.
9. The expert from Australia, on behalf of the Chair of the informal working group on Pole Side Impact (PSI), introduced GRSP-52-07, including the last progress report of the group and a draft of the UN GTR. He explained that the draft was provided to gather comments from GRSP experts to be sent in writing to the Chair of the informal working group by 25 January 2013. He underlined that comments were particularly sought on Annex 2 of Part II of the draft UN GTR, which was setting out the seating procedure for the test dummy (50th percentile male dummy). Concerning the scope, the expert from OICA argued that real-world data indicated the low involvement of N1 and N2 category of vehicles in PSI accidents and proposed their removal from the scope. The expert from Australia explained that the Contracting Parties (CPs) to the 1998 Agreement had the discretion to exclude particular vehicle types for which there were sufficient national safety measures to justify the restraint application of the UN GTR (see GRSP-52-07, Part I, para. 47).
10. GRSP agreed to resume consideration on this agenda item at its May 2013 session and noted that AC.3 at its November 2012 session agreed to fix the deadline for the Phase 1 of the informal working group at March 2014 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1099, para. 105) Moreover, the secretariat was requested to distribute GRSP-52-07 (only the part related to the draft UN GTR) with an official symbol.
11. The expert from the United States, Chair of the informal working group on harmonization of side impact dummies, gave an oral report of the work progress of the group. She confirmed that her group was finalizing the validation of the 50th percentile of the World Side Impact Dummy (World SID). Concerning the 5th percentile female dummy she announced that the informal working group agreed to start over pelvic re-design reducing contact during pelvis impact test. She added that this activity could take time. Accordingly, she suggested suspending the activity of the Informal Working Group on Pole Side Impact once the Phase I would be concluded, awaiting the outcome of the informal group on side impact dummies on the 5th percentile female.
12. GRSP agreed to resume consideration on this subject at its May 2013 session and to seek consent of AC.3 to fix the deadline mandate of the informal working group at December 2015.
86. Submitted for consideration and vote, the proposed draft UN GTR (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/120) was established in the UN Global Registry on 13 November 2013 by consensus vote of the following Contracting Parties present and voting: Australia, China, European Union (voting for Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom), India, Japan, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa and Turkey.
87. The technical report (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/121) and the adopted proposal for the development of the UN GTR (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/28) will be appended to the established UN GTR.
88. The representative of the United States of America abstained from voting because of the existence of a national pole side impact regulation that incorporates both the 50th percentile and the 5th percentile test dummy in his country. He added that the United States of America was not in a position to commit to proposing the GTR domestically because it included only a 50th percentile test dummy. In addition, the test procedure and injury criteria in the proposed UN GTR had yet to be demonstrated as at least as effective as the existing American standard. The representative of Canada also abstained from voting and gave a similar statement.
89. The representative of the EU volunteered to review the proposed amendments by the United States of America contained in WP.29-161-07 and to provide a written statement for the next session of GRSP that the EU is committed to discuss and, if possible, to address the issues at stake in the second phase of the programme.
90. The representative of India recognized the contribution of Australia in developing the UN GTR. However, he indicated that some areas of improvement need to be addressed, such as the harmonization of the World Side Impact Dummy (WorldSID) and impact test speeds with adequate tolerances.
91. A statement given by the representative of Australia is reproduced in Annex V to this report.
[Russia noted that its transposition of the regulation will be undertaken once its UN Regulation counterpart has been finalized.]
121. The representative of Australia informed AC.3 that the first meeting of the informal group was scheduled from 16 to 18 November 2010 in Bonn (Germany). The provisional agenda and the working papers for consideration at the session are available from www.unece.org/trans/main/wp29/wp29wgs/wp29grsp/psimpact_1.html.