Motorcyclists head injuries:​ mechanisms identified from accident reconstruction and helmet damage replication

Chinn, B. P.; Doyle, D.; Otte, D.; Schuller, E.

Affiliations

¹Transport Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, UK

²Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, UK

³Accident Research Unit, Medical University Hannover, Germany

⁴Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Munich University, München/Germany

Abstract

Motorcycle accident data have been collected in Glasgow, Hannover and Munich as part of a COST action and the data have been used to create a database comprising 218 cases. The purpose of the study was to improve the knowledge of head and neck injury mechanisms. The criteria for inclusion was that a helmet was worn at the time of the accident and that a head impact, although not necessarily a head injury, had occurred. Sixty-seven percent sustained a head injury and 28.2% a neck injury. Also notable were the 53% with a thorax injury and 73% with leg injuries. It is not surprising that when the injuries were subdivided into MAIS that as the MAIS increased so did the proportion with a head injury, from 38% for MAIS 1 to 85% for MAIS 3 and greater. Eighteen cases were replicated with drop tests of a helmeted headfomr and in 13 cases where the motorcyclist sustained a head injury the rotational acceleration was approximately 9,000 rad/s2 or greater.

Cited By (10)

Year	Entry
2013	Chawla A, Grover V, Mukherjee S, Hassan AM. Car accident reconstruction and head injury correlation. J Inst Eng India Ser C. April 2013;94(2):113-121.
2000	Hering AM, Derler S. Motorcycle helmet drop tests using a Hybrid III dummy. In: Proceedings of the 2000 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2000; Montpellier, France.307-321.
2000	Willinger R, Baumgartner D, Chinn B, Neale M. Head tolerance limits derived from numerical replication of real world accidents. In: Proceedings of the 2000 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2000; Montpellier, France.209-221.
2001	Beusenberg M, Shewchenko N, Newman JA, de Lange R, Cappon H. Head, neck, and body coupling in reconstructions of helmeted head impacts. In: Proceedings of the 2001 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. October 10-12, 2001; Isle of Man, UK.
2006	Marjoux D, Baumgartner D, Deck C, Willinger R. Head injury prediction capability of the HIC, HIP, SIMON and ULP criteria. In: Proceedings of the 2006 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2006; Madrid, Spain.143-157.
2008	Marjoux D, Baumgartner D, Deck C, Willinger R. Head injury prediction capability of the HIC, HIP, SIMon and ULP criteria. Accid Anal Prev. May 2008;40(3):1135-1148.
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2003	Willinger R, Baumgartner D. Numerical and physical modelling of the human head under impact: towards new injury criteria. Int J Veh Des. January 2003;32(1-2):94-115.
2023	Baker C. AutoTriage: A Feasibility Assessment of Using in-Vehicle Sensors to Predict Traumatic Brain Injury in Road Traffic Collisions [PhD thesis]. Imperial College London; March 23, 2023.
2014	Patton DA. The Biomechanical Determinants of Sports-Related Concussion: Finite Element Simulations of Unhelmeted Head Impacts to Evaluate Kinematic and Tissue-Level Predictors of Injury and Investigate the Design Implications for Soft-Shell Headgear [PhD thesis]. University of New South Wales; March 2014.