A study of methods to evaluate submarining using human body models and anthropomorphic test devices. The research tested 600 simulations across six environments with one human body model and three anthropomorphic test devices, integrating 20 different indicator definitions. A distance-based nearest node dynamic indicator emerged as most promising. The indicator is purely kinematic, time-resolved, automated, and configurable, depending only on node coordinates without force or sensor outputs. It was subsequently tested and extended to additional anthropometries. The indicator detects submarining effectively and can be combined with complementary criteria.