The Identification and Quantification of Incidents Involving General Motors (GM) Trucks with Side Mounted Fuel Tanks, International conference Accident Investigation, Reconstruction, Interpretation and the Law, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, October 13-16, 1997. Arndt, Mark W., Roberts, Chell.

An important issue in the determination of crashworthiness for engineering analysis and litigation is the identification and quantification of other incidents. This paper presents an approach to the identification and quantification of other incidents predominantly from and engineering perspective relative to incidents involving General Motors (GM) light trucks with fuel tanks mounted outside the frame rails. Important variables were classified as event variables, vehicle variables,  occupant variables, data source variables, and fuel leakage variables. A database was created based on these variables. As an example, included in the vehicle damage variables is a first damage causing event, the most damage causing event to the fuel system, and there variables based on a modified Collision Deformation Classification (CDC). The database consists of a physical set of files and software that included accident reports, photos, medical reports, occasionally legal documents, and miscellaneous documents pertaining to each incident. All of the incidents identified by GM and The United States, Department of Transportation, Office of Defect Investigation (ODI) are included in the database.

The Development of a Method for Determining Effective Slack in Motor Vehicle Restraint Systems for Rollover Protection SAE 970781, Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, February 24-27, 1997. Arndt, Mark W., Gregory A. Mowry, Pete E. Baray, David A. Clark.

Effective slack associated with seat belt systems for rollover protection is studied for the purpose of improving or anticipating improvements to a motor vehicle rollover protection system. A test method and test devices were constructed to study and develop objective understandings of the effects of motor vehicle seat and seat belt characteristics on effective slack. The test devices and test method were proved in two separate motor vehicles with differing seat belt systems. Results demonstrated that effective slack as a conceptual equivalent to a seat belt webbing length could be repeatable and objectively determined for the systems tested. Determining a seat belt system's effective slack is useful for the purpose of comparing experimental restraints and experimental restraint testing to motor vehicle restraint design and performance.