Although the neck is one of the least frequently injured body regions, it does play a considerable role in the solicitations of the head in side impact. It can, in fact, be said that the kinematic and dynamic conditions that govern, for instance, a head impact against a vehicle structure depend on the cervical segment.

With a view to characterizing such conditions, i.e. head and neck responses, the LPB-APR conducted a research program including sled tests involving cadavers. These tests were conducted at a low and high G-level sled deceleration, respectively, with the low-violence tests being carried out following collaboration with the Naval Biodynamics Laboratory (New Orleans). Such tests enable direct comparison between volunteer data and cadaver data.

The scope of this paper is to present a synthesis of the data obtained from LPB-APR low and high G-level tests, including, in particular, data obtained from new high severity tests.

The analysis of these data is based on detailed results provided by the processing of both accelerometers and film informations.

Discussion is devoted to the type of kinematics described by the head as well as to the head-neck interactions in terms of the moments acting at the level of the occipital condyles. The results of the autopsies of the subjects, who sustained no injuries, and the linear and angular acceleration levels indicate that these two new tests appear to be satisfactory, as an initial basis, for the defining of specifications for a dummy's neck exposed to violent conditions.