Injury risk functions in frontal impacts using data from crash pulse recorders

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Stigson, Helena^1,2; Kullgren, Anders^1,3; Rosén, Erik⁴

Injury risk functions in frontal impacts using data from crash pulse recorders

56th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM)

Affiliations

¹Folksam Research, Stockholm, Sweden

²Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

³Department of Applied Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden

⁴Autoliv Research, Vårgårda, Sweden
Abstract

Knowledge of how crash severity influences injury risk in car crashes is essential in order to create a safe road transport system. Analyses of real-world crashes increase the ability to obtain such knowledge. The aim of this study was to present injury risk functions based on real-world frontal crashes where crash severity was measured with on-board crash pulse recorders.

Results from 489 frontal car crashes (26 models of four car makes) with recorded acceleration-time history were analysed. Injury risk functions for restrained front seat occupants were generated for maximum AIS value of two or greater (MAIS2+) using multiple logistic regression. Analytical as well as empirical injury risk was plotted for several crash severity parameters; change of velocity, mean acceleration and peak acceleration. In addition to crash severity, the influence of occupant age and gender was investigated.

A strong dependence between injury risk and crash severity was found. The risk curves reflect that small changes in crash severity may have a considerable influence on the risk of injury. Mean acceleration, followed by change of velocity, was found to be the single variable that best explained the risk of being injured (MAIS2+) in a crash. Furthermore, all three crash severity parameters were found to predict injury better than age and gender. However, age was an important factor. The very best model describing MAIS2+ injury risk included delta V supplemented by an interaction term of peak acceleration and age.
Links

PubMed: 23169136

PubMedCentral: PMC3503411

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Cited By (10)

Year	Entry
2015	Gabler HC, Weaver AA, Stitzel JD. Automotive field data in injury biomechanics. In: Yoganandan N, Nahum AM, Melvin JW, eds. Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention. 3rd ed. New York: Springer; 2015:33-49.
2017	Ydenius A, Kullgren A, Rizzi M, Engström E, Stigson H, Strandroth J. Fatal car to moose collisions: real-world in-depth data, crash tests and potential of different countermeasures. In: Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 5-8, 2017; Detroit, MI.
2014	Sunnevång C, Hynd D, Carroll J, Dahlgren M. Comparison of the THORAX demonstrator and HIII sensitivity to crash severity and occupant restraint variation. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 10-12, 2014; Berlin, Germany.377-388.
2014	Mendoza‐Vázquez M, Jakobsson L, Davidsson J, Brolin K, Östmann M. Evaluation of thoracic injury criteria for THUMS finite element human body model using real‐world crash data. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 10-12, 2014; Berlin, Germany.528-541.
2017	Elrud R, Stigson H, Ohlin M, Alexanderson K, Kjeldgård L, Friberg E. Sickness absence among passenger car occupants following a crash. In: Proceedings of the 2017 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-15, 2017; Antwerp, Belgium.79-90.
2019	Brumbelow ML. Front crash injury risks for restrained drivers in good-rated vehicles by age, impact configuration, and EDR-based delta V. In: Proceedings of the 2019 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 11-13, 2019; Florence, Italy.560-574.
2021	Inoue T, Oguri K, Suga H, Suzuki K, Prochazka Z, Nakamura T, Kurisu A. Large-scale experiment to assess the collision impact force from a tsunami wave on a drifting castaway. PLoS One. February 25, 2021;16(2):e0247436.
2014	Mendoza Vázquez M. Thoracic Injuries in Frontal Car Crashes: Risk Assessment Using a Finite Element Human Body Model [PhD thesis]. Gothenburg, Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology; 2014.
2019	Donlon JP. Restraint Biomechanics in Frontal Impacts With Inboard-Leaning Occupants [Master's thesis]. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia; August 2019.
2023	Dean ME. Applications of Event Data Recorder Derived Crash Severity Metrics to Injury Prevention [PhD thesis]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; March 20, 2023.