Review of the air bag effectiveness in real life accidents demands: for positioning and optimal deployment of air bag systems

wbldb

Review of the air bag effectiveness in real life accidents demands: for positioning and optimal deployment of air bag systems

Proceedings of the 39th Stapp Car Crash Conference

Affiliations

¹Medical University of Hannover
Abstract

In Europe there is less experience with air bag deployments in accidents than the US-scene. Within the continuing in-depth investigations at the Medical University Hannover 41 accidents with air bag deployments could be documented. A detailed description of selected accidents is given in the study. The injuries of the occupants are described and the injury mechanisms caused by the air bag deployment are discussed. In the study the distribution of injury severities are compared for accidents with seat belt system only correlating to those with air bag additionally.

The air bag fitted cases demonstrate that the protective effect was essentually based on using the seat belt. Especially for less load level some injuries occured which can called as airbag specific injuries. These are some haematoma in the thorax and face region als well as burn injuries, but a higher risk for distorsions of the cervical spine AIS 1 could be seen.

These results lead to the supposition that in case of air bag - seat belt systems the current level of deployment is too low. It is the proposal of the study to use the effectiveness of the seat belt system only up to delta-v 35 or 40 km/h and the air bag effectiveness should be aimed at above this delta-v level. The benefit of an air bag could be established with higher delta-v.

A second part of the study quantifies the benefit of an airbag for frontal and lateral collisions.
Links

DOI: 10.4271/952701

SAE: 952701

Cited By (17)

Year	Entry
2010	Schmitt K-U, Niederer PF, Muser MH, Walz F. Trauma Biomechanics: Accidental Injury in Traffic and Sports. 2nd ed. Deidelberg, Germany: Springer; 2010.
1997	Lau E, Ray RM, Cheng LY. Deployment of airbags in traffic accidents: characteristics and consequences. In: 41st Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). November 10-11, 1997; Orlando, FL.371-385.
1996	Huelke DF, Reed RT. Cranial-vertebral fractures and dislocations associated with steering wheel airbag deployment. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.110-115.
1996	Morris AP, Thomas P, Brett M, Bruno-Foret J-Y, Thomas C, Otte D, Ono K. A review of driver airbag deployments in Europe and Japan to date. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.122-131.
1996	Kallieris D, Rizzetti A, Wirên Bv, Mattern R. The influence of force limiter to the injury severity by using a 3-point belt and driver air bag in frontal collisions. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.456-464.
1998	Lenard J, Frampton R, Thomas P. The influence of European air bags on crash injury outcomes. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.972-982.
2001	Morris A, Barnes J, Fildes B. The effectiveness of airbags in Australia as determined by in-depth crash injury research. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2011	Dávila A, Nombela M. Research on airbag related injuries. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.
1997	Otte D, Pohlemann T, Blauth M. Significance of soft tissue neck injuries AIS 1 in the accident scene and deformation characteristics of cars with delta-V up to 10 km/h. In: Proceedings of the 1997 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 24-26, 1997; Hannover, Germany.265-283.
1999	Canaple B, Cesari D, Drazetic P. Identification of head injury mechanisms associated with reconstruction of traffic accidents. In: Proceedings of the 1999 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 23-24, 1999; Sitges, Spain.37-51.
2000	Frampton R, Sferco R, Welsh R, Kirk A, Fay P. Effectiveness of airbag restraints in frontal crashes: what european field studies tell us. In: Proceedings of the 2000 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2000; Montpellier, France.425-438.
2000	Otte D. Causes of airbag non-deployment in special collision configurations. In: Proceedings of the 2000 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2000; Montpellier, France.439-452.
2002	Kirk A, Frampton R, Thomas P. An evaluation of airbag benefits/disbenefits in european vehicles: a combined statistical and case study approach. In: Proceedings of the 2002 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 18-20, 2002; Munich, Germany.
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.
2000	Richter M, Otte D, Pohlemann T, Krettek C, Blauth M. Whiplash-type neck distortion in restrained car drivers: frequency, causes and long-term results. Eur Spine J. April 2000;9(2):109-117.
2006	Gibson T. Development and Validation of a C5/C6 Motion Segment Model [PhD thesis]. University of New South Wales; January 4, 2006.
2017	Kalra A. Development of an Elderly Female Torso Finite Element Model for Restraint System Research and Development Applications [PhD thesis]. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University; May 2017.