Over the last decades a large amount of studies have dealt with the phenomena of soft tissue injuries following rear end impacts. Up to now neither the injury mechanism has been identified nor an Injury Criterion has been established. Therefore it is very difficult to develop neck protecting seat systems and to evaluate their effectiveness.

Recently, Bostrom et al. have proposed a so called Neck Injury Criterion (NIC) which shall predict neck injuries following rear end impacts. This Criterion is based upon a hypothesis of Aldman. In principle, the theory claims pressure effects in the spinal canal to be responsible for soft tissue neck injuries. Svensson et al. have investigated the theory by performing tests with anaesthetized pigs. It was demonstrated that pressure peaks in the spinal canal occur at a certain phase of the movement of the cervical spine (“S-shape“, “maximum retraction“). Also damage to the spinal ganglia was found in these tests and reIated to the pressure effect theory.

The purpose of this investigation is to apply the NIC Criterion on data measured in human subject tests. 70 volunteer tests and 28 cadaver tests were analyzed in order to investigate the movement of the human spine. The NIC was calculated for all these tests and compared to other data that could be of interest for neck injuries (e.g. angular acceleration of the head).

Out of this analysis it is concluded that the NIC in conjunction with other parameters is a useful indicator for the prediction of neck injuries following rear end impacts.