66 Passage 2 - Vehicle Safety Systems Q14-28

Passage 2 Vehicle Safety Systems
SECTION 2
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 14-28 which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.
Vehicle Safety Systems

Although drivers and their passengers are encased in the event of a crash, people hit by
a car have no protection. Now that could change thanks to a new system built into a
vehicle that will enhance a pedestrian’s safety. Every month about 3,400 pedestrians are
killed in traffic accidents of the roads in the US, and a similar number die in Europe.
Some 30% of the injuries included in this group are caused by an impact with a
windscreen or its frame.
A European-wide collaboration led by Roger Hardy of the Cranfield Impact Centre at
Cranfield University close to Bedford in the UK has devised an experimental system for
cars that aims to cut this death toll and decrease the risk of injuries. When the system
registers that the car is about to hit a pedestrian, it automatically raises the rear of the
bonnet (hood), releasing a giant airbag in front of the windscreen.
“The raised bonnet absorbs some of the energy of the impact, decreasing the risk of
severe injury to the pedestrian,” says Hardy, whose project forms part of the European
Union-funded Integrated Project on Advanced Protection Systems (APROSYS). “If it’s a
large pedestrian or on a small town car, the airbag also offers a cushioning effect around
the stiff peripheral regions of the windscreen,” he says. The airbag system used by
Hardy was enhanced by the German company Takata Petri. To test its efficacy when
combined with the raised bonnet, they cooperated into developing a prototype Fiat
Stilo by engineers at the Fiat Research Centre in Turin, Italy. Then the team estimated
the danger of head injuries in test collisions with a dummy pedestrian.
A standard Stilo test hitting a pedestrian at 40 kilometres per hour would have a score
of around 1,000 on the Head Impact Criterion (HIC) scale. That is the equivalent of an
18% chance of a life-threatening injury. For pedestrians hitting Hardy’s bonnet, the
scores were reduced to between 234 and 682, whilst the normal windscreen airbag
scores ranged between 692 and 945. Hardy’s team has also introduced a design in which
a windscreen mounting system cushions the impact with the edge of the windscreen.
This consists of a flexible Z-shaped section of metal, that is a maximum of 15 millimetres
wide, separating the windscreen from its frame so that it is able to flex inwards to
absorb energy in a collision. The team says it could decrease HIC scores by over 50%.
1
Another APROSYS collaboration led by Jurgen Gugler at the Graz University of

Technology in Austria researched how changing the shaping of the front of a truck could
reduce the risk to pedestrians. Computer simulations of 20 accident scenarios indicated
that a smooth sloping surface with a central bulge decreases the likelihood of a
pedestrian involved in a front-end accident being run over by 80 to 90%. Gugler says,
“The pedestrian is knocked to the side, rotated and pushed towards the ground. You are
out of the path of the oncoming truck.”
Fiat researchers managed by Roberto Puppini have also had some success in early tests
of an adaptive bumper system. Four gas springs kick in at high speeds to move the
bumper forward so that it will absorb the energy of an impact. So will manufacturers
actually incorporate any of these safety innovations into their cars? Over the next two
years, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) will be phasing the
results of pedestrian safety tests into its essential rating system. Poor Euro NCAP test
results could result in less safe car models being withdrawn from the market. This
suggests that buyers and manufacturers can be persuaded to take the safety of drivers
and their passengers seriously, buy it remains to be seen whether the welfare of
pedestrians is as persuasive a selling point.
For now, at least, there is little else to convince car manufacturers to install these safety
devices. Hardy says, “Recently, from the legislative point of view, there is not a colossal
incentive for manufacturers to utilise these technologies.” Perhaps ultimately the law
will have to step in so that external airbags and energy-absorbing bodywork enhance
pedestrian safety as dramatically as seat belts and internal airbags have enhanced driver
and passenger safety.
Questions 14-20
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
2
Every month there are about 3,400 people hit by a car in the US and a similar number of
casualties in 14……………………… Actually, around 30% of them are a result of
15……………………… or its frame. To decrease road traffic accidents, a European-wide
collaboration devised automatic lifting rear of 16………………………., and a
17…………………………. Ahead of the windscreen working at the same time.
Hardy’s team has researched a system to cushion impacts with the outline of
18……………………….. It includes an easily bent and 19……………………….. metal frame with
the windscreen and frame separated. But he said: According to law, although having
safety devices for protection against a crash, now any manufacture companies to
harness these devises could not have 20………………………
Questions 21-25
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 21-25 on your answer sheet.
21 A European-wide collaboration
22 European Union-funded Integrated Project
23 APROSYS collaboration
24 Euro NCAP
25 Poor Euro NCAP
A be part of schemes to decrease hazardous situations for pedestrians.
B help judge less safe vehicle models between buyers and companies.
C improve testing under the condition that a crash decreased.
D make a solution within the frequency of tests for safe pedestrians.
E study how replacing a lorry’s front side protects pedestrians.
F be persuasive as a selling point.
G improve a pedestrian’s chances.
3
Questions 26-28
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 26-28 on your answer sheet.
26 Which one of the following is found in the passage?
A the number of traffic accidents and rubbish on the road
B the amount of petrol gas misused and recycled
C the number of casualties in traffic accidents on the road
D the cases of car insurance in a court
27 What are the main technical devices made by Roger Hardy?

A brake system
B automatic both bonnet and airbag system
C instant front door and trunk open
D anti-slip tires during heavy rain and snow
28 The writer believed that the “Hardy’s team” on the system could
A decrease in the Head Impact Criterion (HIC) score until over half per cent.
B be almost as safe as computer simulation tests.
C be causing significant damage to half per cent of the Head Impact Criterion
(HIC).
D reduce converting the windscreen airbag.
4
ANSWER
14. Europe
15. windscreen
16. (the) bonnet
17. giant airbag
18. (the) windscreen
19. Z-shaped
20. (a) colossal incentive
21. C
22. A
23. E
24. D
25. B
26. C
27. B
28. A

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Passage 2 Vehicle Safety Systems

Vehicle Safety Systems

Another APROSYS collaboration led by Jurgen Gugler at the Graz University of

27 What are the main technical devices made by Roger Hardy?

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