Streeter Impact Laboratory

CASR studies the influence of vehicle design on pedestrian injury in a collision. The Streeter Impact Laboratory (named after its designer, Luke Streeter) is a central part of our pedestrian safety research, which considers both accident prevention and injury mitigation through vehicle design.

It is the only laboratory in Australia set up to conduct pedestrian 'sub-system' impact tests on vehicles. It is equipped to assess the danger posed by the front of a vehicle to a pedestrian. Our study does not use full scale crash test dummies, as is done with studies on occupant protection, but 'sub-systems' that represent, separately, the head, upper leg, and lower leg of a pedestrian. These sub-system impactors are launched at the stationary vehicle. The laboratory's main client is the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, which regularly publishes the results of the pedestrian sub-system tests that rate the safety performance of a new vehicle in a collision with a pedestrian.

Head Impact Test Machine

This machine tests the response of a vehicle surfaces to a head impact.

It has the following features:

• Powered by rubber bungie cords
• Propels a 5 kg headform at up to 80 km/h
• Highly repeatable headform velocities
• Fully instrumented to measure the velocity and acceleration of the headform
• Pivoting arm allows any external part of the vehicle to be impacted from any angle

Leg Impact Test Machine

This machine tests the response of the front of a vehicle to a leg impact.

It uses the same basic technology as the head impact test machine and can accomodate upper or full legform tests at any angle