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Old 12-30-2020, 04:49 PM   #37 (permalink)
JSH
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Another key difference is that Euro regulations do crash testing with belted passengers while US regulations require automakers to restrain unbelted passengers. This leads to different interiors with different structures.

When I was a product engineer for the Mercedes M-Class interior the Euro dashboards had soft padding on the bottom of the dash to protect a driver's shins when the legs went flying forward in a crash. The US version had an aluminum accordion structure in the bottom of the dash. When an unbelted driver went flying forward the knee would hit that accordion structure and help keep the driver vertical long enough for the airbags to deploy. Without the structure the driver could start to slide under the steering wheel and then the airbag would deploy and punch them in the face. In 2008 (I think) that aluminum according structure was replaced with a knee airbag that would deploy before the steering wheel airbag.

The Euro version is actually safer for a driver wearing a seatbelt. Some IIHS data shows that knee airbags can actually increase leg injuries in belted drivers.

(We had 6 different versions of the dashboard to meet the different worldwide standards)
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