Motor vehicle safety apparatus

#This invention relates to a motor vehicle and in particular to a safety apparatus for a motor vehicle to reduce the severity of injury to the lower leg of a driver of a motor vehicle involved in an accident.

#It is known to provide a motor vehicle with one or more foot pedals to operate such features as the brakes, clutch and fuel supply. It is a particular problem with the brake pedal, that in a crash situation the driver is normally pressing hard on the brake pedal to effect maximum braking of the motor vehicle, and, if the driver does not place his foot evenly on the pedal but applies it using one side of his foot, severe impact tends to result in twisting of the ankle and may result in serious injury. The same problem can occur with the other pedals, but is less likely as the driver is usually operating only the brake on impact.

#It is known from GB 2 179 898 to provide a vehicle in which the floor of the driver's footwell beneath the foot pedals is covered with a layer of energy absorbing material to support the driver's foot in the event of a front impact. However it can be a problem with this type of system that the energy absorbing layer needs to be very firm to be of use under the high loads experienced in frontal impacts, and the problem of the driver's ankle being twisted therefore remains.

#FIG. 1 is a plan cross-sectional view of part of a motor vehicle including a safety apparatus according to the invention;

#FIG. 2 is a cross-section on the line Z—Z on FIG. 1;

#FIG. 3 is a front view of a pedal shown in FIG. 1;

#With reference to the FIGS. 1 to 3, in a first embodiment of the invention a motor vehicle has a structural footwell 11 formed in part by a front bulkhead 10 separating a passenger compartment P from an engine compartment E. A driver operable brake pedal, located in the footwell, comprises an arm 14 pivotably connected at its upper end to part of the body structure of the motor vehicle by pivot means (not shown) and a foot pad 15 attached to the lower or free end of the arm 14.

#The bulkhead 10 is joined at its lower end to a floor member 20 which forms the bottom of the footwell. A carpet 12 lines the footwell, overlying both the floor 20 and the bulkhead 10. A layer of shock absorbing foam material overlies the part of the bulkhead forming the footwell and forms a foot support 13. It extends from the floor 20 to a position well above the height of the foot pad 15. The foam support 13 has a trough or recess 16 into which both the arm 14 and the pad 15 can be accommodated when the brake pedal is fully depressed to the extreme limit of its travel. This recess is shaped so as to correspond closely to the shape of the pedal 14, 15. As shown in FIG. 3, at its lower end the recess is just wider and longer than the foot pad 15, and higher up it is narrower so as to be just wider than the pedal arm 14. The support therefore extends beneath and to either side of the pedal, substantially surrounding it.

#Generally under normal operating loads the pedal will travel about 70 to 80 mm from its fully released position which is shown in broken lines in FIG. 2. Under abusive loads this rises to about 100 mm. Under frontal impact conditions when the load on the pedal increases significantly beyond what the driver could voluntarily apply, the pedal travel increases further to about 120 or 130 mm, which is shown in solid lines in FIG. 2.