Biomechanics of real child pedestrian accidents

Sturtz, G.; Suren, E. G.; Gotzen, L.; Behrens, S.; Richter, K.

Affiliations

¹Institute of Automotive Engineering, Technical University Berlin

²Accidental Surgical Clinic, Medical Highschool Hannover

³Institute for Pathology of the country capital Hannover at Hospital Nordstadt

Abstract

An optimisation of the vehicle exterior with regard to the pedestrian accident is only sensible with a view of the main groups of pedestrians. Contrary to dummy tests, of which advantages as well as disadvantages are sufficiently known, the correlation of dummy versus living human body versus dead tissue is eliminated in the analysis of real accidents, but gets extended by the parameter of age. Compared with laboratory tests, this method suffers from the disadvantage of middle errors in the estimated initial data, for instance the collision speed of the vehicle, which vary with every accident.

Based on 230 medically and technically thoroughly worked out single-case analyses of real pedestrian accidents, including 128 accidents involving children, the influence of various parameters of vehicles and traffic participants on kinematics, injury mechanisms, and traumatising of the pedestrian accident are outlined. The main effort lies in the analysis of the biggest main-group--the child pedestrians, who are marked by pronounced differences in size and proportion as well as special mechanical strength of their bodies.

Links

DOI: 10.4271/760814

SAE: 760814

Cited By (8)

Year	Entry
2015	Simms CK, Wood D, Fredriksson R. Pedestrian injury biomechanics and protection. In: Yoganandan N, Nahum AM, Melvin JW, eds. Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention. 3rd ed. New York: Springer; 2015:721-753.
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2001	Liu X, Yang J. Development of child pedestrian mathematical models and evaluation with accident reconstructions. In: Proceedings of the 2001 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. October 10-12, 2001; Isle of Man, UK.
2002	Liu X, Yang J. Effects of vehicle impact velocity and front-end structure on the dynamic responses of child pedestrians. In: Proceedings of the 2002 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 18-20, 2002; Munich, Germany.