Limb amputations are believed to be the markers of high speed (>90 km/h) pedestrian hits caused by sharp edges of a car body. The analysis of the circumstances of such accidents shows, however, that amputations are also produced at much lower velocities (60+ km/h) when the lower limb gets under the front bumper (especially when the car is not braked) and therefore the wrapping of the upper body part around the hood causes stretching and disrupting of the entrapped limb leading to amputation (in the majority of "incomplete" amputation cases, the "tissue bridge" remains paradoxically on the impact side or laterally to the impact side).
Keywords:
amputations; biomechanics; injury severity; legs; pedestrians