Influence of airbags and seatbelt pretensioners on ais1 neck injuries for belted occupants in frontal impacts

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Kullgren, Anders¹; Krafft, Maria¹; Malm, Sigrun¹; Ydenius, Anders¹; Tingvall, Claes²

Influence of airbags and seatbelt pretensioners on ais1 neck injuries for belted occupants in frontal impacts

Stapp Car Crash J. 2000;44:117-125

Affiliations

¹Folksam Research

²Monash University Accident Research Centre
Abstract

AIS1 neck injuries are the most frequent disabling injuries among car occupants in road traffic accidents. Although neck injury is mostly regarded as resulting from rear end collisions, almost one third of all neck injuries occur in frontal impacts. Several studies have shown the effect of airbags on injury and fatality rates. However, studies of the effect of airbags on the risk of injuries to different body regions are rare. Airbags and seatbelt pretensioners may influence especially the risk of neck injuries.

This paper presents influence of airbags and pretensioners on reported neck injury risk in frontal impacts. Cars fitted with airbags in combination with pretensioners and cars without have been analyzed. Since 1992, approximately 150,000 vehicles on the Swedish market have been equipped with crash pulse recorders to measuring frontal impacts. This study includes results from 158 frontal impacts, where the crash pulses have been recorded using crash pulse recorders and where the status of airbag deployments was known. Only reported neck injuries, often denoted as short-term disability to the neck, were considered in this study. Injury risk functions for cars with and without airbags versus change of velocity and mean and peak accelerations were analyzed.

It was found that airbags in combination with seat belt pretensioners reduced the number of AIS1 neck injuries in frontal impacts with 41% +/- 15.2%. In impacts at a change of velocity between 1 and 30 km/h, airbags and pretensioners was found to reduce the neck injury risk with 59% +/- 18.6%.
Links

PubMed: 17458722

SAE: 2000-01-SC09

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2012	Isaksson-Hellman I, Lindman M. The effect of a low-speed automatic brake system estimated from real life data. In: 56th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 14-17, 2012; Seattle, WA.231-240.
2012	Stigson H, Kullgren A, Rosén E. Injury risk functions in frontal impacts using data from crash pulse recorders. In: 56th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 14-17, 2012; Seattle, WA.267-276.
2009	Distner M, Bengtsson M, Broberg T, Jakobsson L. City safety: a system addressing rear-end collisions at low speeds. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2015	Isaksson-Hellman I, Lindman M. Real-world performance of city safety based on Swedish insurance data. In: Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 8-11, 2015; Gothenburg, Sweden.
2001	Ydenius A, Kullgren A. Injury risk functions in frontal impacts using recorded crash pulses. In: Proceedings of the 2001 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. October 10-12, 2001; Isle of Man, UK.
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2008	Kullgren A. Dose-response models and edr data for assessment of injury risk and effectiveness of safety systems. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 17-19, 2008; Bern, Switzerland.3-14.
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2013	Kullgren A, Stigson H, Krafft M. Development of whiplash associated disorders for male and female car occupants in cars launched since the 80s in different impact directions. In: Proceedings of the 2013 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 11-13, 2013; Gothenburg, Sweden.51-61.
2000	Bohman K, Boström O, Håland Y, Kullgren A. A study of AIS1 neck injury parameters in 168 frontal collisions using a restrained Hybrid III dummy. Stapp Car Crash J. 2000;44:103-116. SAE 2000-01-SC08.
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2012	Carlsson A. Addressing Female Whiplash Injury Protection: A Step Towards 50th Percentile Female Rear Impact Occupant Models [PhD thesis]. Gothenburg, Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology; 2012.