The workshop on frontal impact assessment in Tokyo, 4-6 November 2026, will address robustness, defined as the vehicle’s ability to protect occupants of varying body height, weight, shape, and seating position in real-world relevant collisions by maintaining structural integrity and effective safety systems so that the risk of injury is minimized for all types of people. The agenda includes review of relevant regulations, clarification of roles of ATDs and HBMs, and conceptual ideas for future regulatory upgrades addressing brain injury, soft tissue neck injury, lower leg injury, thorax injury, submarining, abdominal loading, and lower severity collisions. The workshop will develop an HBM-based robustness assessment matrix to complement current ATD-based requirements.

The informal working group on Equitable Occupant Protection reviewed the status of five task forces addressing rear-end impact, virtual crash testing, frontal impact and restraint systems, and assessment of currently not considered injury types with high frequency and risk of permanent medical impairment. The group discussed robustness assessment for occupant protection, defined as the vehicle’s ability to protect occupants with variation of body height, weight, shape, physical constitution, and age in real-world relevant collisions. An upcoming workshop in Tokyo will develop conceptual ideas for assessing robustness by evaluating performance over a matrix of human and crash-condition variability, complementing current requirement-specific assessments based on anthropomorphic test devices, with status reports due December 2026 and final report December 2027.

Draft minutes of the 12th meeting of the UNECE GRSP IWG Equitable Occupant Protection Task Force 2 Rear-end impact held online on 28 September 2026. The group discussed Euro NCAP workshop findings on EvaRID seat performance criteria, including preliminary testing results showing higher NIC values and differences in dummy response compared to BioRID. Topics included preventing sub-optimization when introducing new assessment tools, the role of dynamic testing in regulatory requirements, head-restraint adjustment mechanisms, and virtual testing potential for rear impact assessment. The group identified virtual testing validation and near-term practical improvements as priorities for continued consideration.

The meeting will review progress on the dashboard, finalize the HBM board with lower extremities remaining, prepare the board for the TF-4 workshop, and discuss next steps.

Draft agenda for the 7th meeting of Task Force 4 Frontal Impact & Restraint System Requirements, scheduled for 21 October 2026. The meeting will cover welcome and agenda approval, approval of previous meeting minutes, progress dashboard review, priority table alignment, preparation for a Japan Workshop in Tokyo in November 2026 including definition of robustness and workshop agenda, conclusions and next steps, and other business.

Agenda for the 17th meeting of the informal working group on Equitable Occupant Protection, EqOP, to be held on-line on 14 October 2026. The meeting will cover welcome, adoption of the agenda, approval of minutes from the 15th meeting, review of the IWG EqOP Progress Dashboard, status of task forces, upcoming meetings and workshops, and conclusion.

The agenda includes a report from Euro NCAP Workshop on Seat Performance Criteria for EvaRID, and discussion of sub-optimization prevention and the role of dynamic testing.

Draft minutes of the 6th meeting of the EqOP Task Force 4 on 7 September 2026 with 33 participants. A technical expert from TUG presented findings on abdominal injuries, showing approximately 9% of injured occupants sustain such injuries, often among the most important alongside thorax, head, and upper extremity injuries, with sex- and age-related differences noted particularly among older female occupants. The group reviewed the progress dashboard, discussed the definition of robustness for the Japan Workshop in November 2026, and deferred the priority table and reading list to the next meeting scheduled for 21 October 2026.

This document presents an analysis of abdominal injuries in frontal crashes using data from CEDATU, the Central Database for In-Depth Accident Study in Austria. The study examined 1,348 cases with 2,570 occupants from accidents between 2003 and 2025, excluding vulnerable road users and crashes with more than two participants. Results show 9.3% of occupants sustained abdominal injuries, with frontal impacts accounting for 62.8% of cases. Liver and spleen injuries were most common, representing 33.8% and 31.9% respectively. Females sustained abdominal injuries more frequently with increasing age compared to males.

This document is background material for the IWG EqOP workshop on equity issues in frontal crashes relevant for restraint systems scheduled for November 2026 in Tokyo. The workshop aims to draft conceptual ideas for a procedure to assess robustness by complementing current specific requirements based on ATDs using a more holistic approach. Robustness is defined as the vehicle’s ability to protect occupants of variation in body height, weight, shape, and seating position in real-world relevant collisions by maintaining structural integrity and effective safety systems. The reading list addresses field data, real-world needs, characteristics of frontal collisions, current regulations including UN R16, UN R94, UN R137, human body model readiness, injury prediction strategies, and regulatory solutions including Euro NCAP approaches, informed by GRSP-78-07.

This document provides background material for an IWG EqOP workshop scheduled for November 2026 in Tokyo to draft conceptual ideas for assessing robustness of vehicles in frontal crashes using a holistic approach complementing current ATD-based requirements. The workshop aims to protect occupants of varying body height, weight, shape, and seating position by maintaining structural integrity and effective safety systems. Two sessions are planned: identifying issues needing solutions through field data and EqOP priorities from GRSP-78-07, and reviewing regulatory solutions including current regulations R16, R94, and R137, with consideration of ATD and HBM roles.

The 2nd Workshop of the Task Force on Virtual Crash Testing is scheduled for September 7, 2026, from 10:00–16:00 CET in Room W 401, Professor-Huber-Platz 02. The agenda includes welcome and workshop objectives, approval of the agenda, context setting on EqOP and the role of TF3, review of ATD limitations and HBM potential, discussion of HBM readiness for EqOP applications, connecting EqOP priorities with ATD limitations and HBM readiness, HBM landscape assessment, and summary of conclusions and next steps.

The EqOP Task Force 2 met online on 29-30 June 2026 to discuss whiplash protection in vehicle seats. Presentations covered whiplash injury mechanisms, UN R17 evaluation, C-NCAP 2027 virtual testing plans, EvaRID and BioRID dummy comparisons, IIHS Rear Impact 2.0 protocol development, parametric seat modelling, and validation of a female SET 50F FE model. Discussions concluded that regulations should avoid sub-optimization toward single criteria, dynamic testing better represents real-world conditions, head-restraint positioning should not be considered misuse, and more forgiving seat designs are needed. The next meeting is scheduled for 28 September 2026.

Whiplash remains a major concern following rear-end collisions, which account for 27.8% of passenger vehicle crashes. Females face greater risk of long-term cervical spine injury than males. Females have less muscle strength, more slender necks, and lower tolerance limits for lower neck shear force compared to males. Only one rear impact dummy size, the 50th percentile male, is currently available. Dynamic testing reveals differences in responses between 50th percentile female and male dummies. Whiplash mitigation requires reducing occupant acceleration, minimising relative movements between vertebrae, and minimising forward rebound. The seat must be considered as a system; focusing on one component alone is inadequate. Preparation for a future 50th percentile female rear impact dummy is recommended, with new injury thresholds established.

Elemance, founded in 2014, distributes, maintains, and supports the GHBMC family of human body models for crash simulations. The Global Human Body Models Consortium consolidates worldwide HBM research and development into a single global effort to develop and maintain high-fidelity finite-element human body models. Elemance provides four occupant sizes in simplified and detailed versions, extensively validated through 250+ peer-reviewed publications and 100+ validation simulations. The models are widely adopted across 133 academic licenses and 41 commercial licenses, and have achieved Euro NCAP certification for occupant and pedestrian models.

The 15th EqOP Virtual Crash Testing Task Force meeting was held online on 9 July 2026 with 29 participants. An agenda item on Elemance and GHBMC was added and approved. A survey to HBM developers, structured on the MIRA board, was approximately 70% complete; results will be finalized and distributed. The group continued discussions on MIRA board readiness over different time horizons, incorporating survey input. Follow-up discussions are scheduled for 7 September 2026 in Munich and 30 September 2026.

The 14th EqOP Task Force Virtual Crash Testing meeting was held online on 13 April 2026 with 34 participants. France presented a proposal for an amendment to Resolution 3 to promote a transversal approach facilitating introduction of Virtual Testing as an optional alternative to physical tests in relevant regulations, with a workshop scheduled for 7 May 2026. A survey sent to HBM developers received 5 responses, which TU Graz anonymized into a table. The group proposed splitting implementation information into technical implementation of a metric into HBM and methods to use metrics for assessment of vehicles. The next meeting is scheduled for 11 June 2026.