A case study of 214 fatal crashes involving fire

Ragland, Carl L.; Hsia, Hsi-Sheng

Affiliations

¹National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

²Research and Special Programs Administration, United States

Abstract

A detailed case study of 214 fatal tire related crashes was conducted to determine whether the death was caused by the fire or blunt trauma. The cases were also examined to determine the specific crash conditions which caused the fire. This analysis was necessary because none of the existing fatal crash databases contained sufficient details to determine the impact configuration or the cause of death. Two hundred and ninety three (293) fatalities occurred in these crashes. Sixty-five (65) ofthese fatalities resulted from fire, with 30 of these fatalities from 16 rear impacts. The speed of impact was determined in eight of the 16 cases which caused these 30 burn fatalities. In these eight cases, the average rear impact speed was 54 mph with speeds ranging from 50 - 60 mph, at 71% overlap (71% of the rear vehicle width engaged), and collinear at 6:00 O’clock. By projecting these cases to the national sample, the number of rear impact fire related fatalities may be estimated between 94 and 191.

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv16/98s4o08.pdf

Cited Works (1)

Year	Entry
1998	Ragland CL. Research tests to develop improved FMVSS 301 rear impact test procedure. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.907-910.

Cited By (3)

Year	Entry
1998	Ragland CL. Research tests to develop improved FMVSS 301 rear impact test procedure. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.907-910.
2009	Digges K, Stephenson RR. The basis for a fluid integrity NCAP rating. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2011	Egelhaaf M, Wolpert D. Post collision vehicle fire analysis. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.