German research unit gets down and dirty to study van accidents
ROAD SAFETY
Mercedes-Benz says it is increasing the safety of its vans with the aid of in-house accident research.
Engineers at the Van Accident Research Unit, at Daimler AG’s Untertürkheim plant in Germany, examine selected crashes in which MercedesBenz vans have been involved.
The results are fed back into vehicle development, thus helping to make the company’s vans even safer.
CONSOLIDATED ANALYSIS
Actual accidents are particularly useful for analysis as they reveal many more possible configurations compared with the parameters specified by the safety tests conducted for vehicle research and approval.
For example, the researchers are able to identify whether the airbags were deployed as intended. In addition, there are also important pointers towards which vehicle components can be designed with greater safety in mind.
“Research focusing on vans has been around since as early as the 1970s. However, the different areas were previously assigned to other divisions. Now we have everything under one roof,” says Vera Hertler, development engineer involved in setting up the Van Accident Research Unit.
Mercedes says many of the safety and assistance systems in the van market were pioneered in its vehicles. The brand has recently set new standards with the Collision Prevention Assist, Blind Spot Assist, Highbeam Assist, Attention Assist, Adaptive ESP and its Pre-Safe system.
For development engineer Hertler and her team, a key element of their research is talking to the vehicle occupants.
“We experience first hand just how important the work we do here is. Often we talk to people who, thanks to the safety technology, have emerged from serious accidents in good shape, and based on their experience immediately order their next van from Mercedes-Benz,” says Hertler.
TRAVELLING UNIT
As the research procedure involves surveying the vehicle involved in the accident and the accident location, the Van Accident Research Unit has access to a Mercedes-Benz Vito Mixto, which has plenty of space for all the necessary equipment.
The load compartment, which is separated from the seat rows by a partition, accommodates everything needed to analyse accidents, from a measuring wheel and safety vests to a camera and clinometer. If it is necessary to travel by plane to specific cases, the shelving components can be removed as ready-packed tool kits and stacked together for checking in as flight luggage.
As part of the “MercedesBenz vans goes global” strategy, the company plans to extend the analysis to vehicle and model variants in other markets.