SAE J3059_201704

This SAE Information Report describes the testing and reporting procedures that may be used to evaluate and document the excursion of a worker or civilian when transported in a seated and restrained position in the patient compartment of a ground ambulance when exposed to a front, side, or rear impact. Its purpose is to provide seating and occupant restraint manufacturers, ambulance builders, and end-users with testing procedures and documentation methods needed to identify head travel paths in crash loading events. This is a component level test. The seating system is tested in free space to measure maximum head travel paths. The purpose is not to identify stay out zones. Rather, the goal is to provide ambulance manufacturers with the data needed to design safer and functionally sound workstations for Emergency Medical Service workers so that workers are better able to safely perform patient care tasks in a moving ambulance. Descriptions of the test set-up, test instrumentation, photographic/video coverage, text fixture, and reporting requirements are included. This SAE Information Report was developed by members of the SAE Truck Crashworthiness Committee in support of the ambulance industry’s need to apply science to the design and testing of the occupant seating and occupant Restraint Systems for workers and civilians transported in the patient compartment of an ambulance. The Information Report was validated collaboratively by industry and government partners through extensive testing funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Ambulance Manufacturers Division of the NTEA. Input loading was generated using the vehicle specific crash pulses described in SAE J2917 and SAE J2956, respectively. An independent analysis of the testing methodology and resulting data was performed by government and private members of the automotive testing community.