**2.6 Crashworthiness**

This is the degree to which a vehicle or aircraft will protect its occupant from the effect of an accident [34]. It is the most important concept in vehicle defect cases. That is, the ability to prevent injuries to the occupant in the event of collision. Therefore, crashworthiness focuses on occupant protection to reduce fatality in the case of an accident. Different criteria can be used to determine crashworthiness depending on the nature of the impact and vehicle involved [35].

In general for composites, these properties depend on other factors such as fiber length, fiber weight percentage content and the extent of polymer/fiber interactions as will be discussed later.
