Next to the frontal crash the side impact belongs to the most common collision types. Due to the limited deformation space it shows a high endangerment for the vehicle passengers. Within the scope of a research project funded by the Research Association for Steel Application (Forschungsvereinigung Stahlanwendung e. V.) at the Institute of Automotive Engineering (ika) of the RWTH Aachen University, a vehicle floor structure in steel sheet lightweight-design with an improved crash behaviour for the pole impact load case was developed with the main aim to ensure sufficient survival space.