A sled test procedure proposal to evaluate the risk of neck injury in low speed rear impacts using a new neck injury criterion (NIC)

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Boström, Ola¹; Håland, Yngve¹; Fredriksson, Rikard¹; Svensson, Mats Y.²; Mellander, Hugo²

A sled test procedure proposal to evaluate the risk of neck injury in low speed rear impacts using a new neck injury criterion (NIC)

Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV)

Affiliations

¹Autoliv Research

²Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Abstract

Today’s cars do not sufficiently prevent neck injuries in rear end impacts. So called whiplash injuries are often sustained at low velocities. According to Swedish road casualty statistics, the risk for whiplash injuries increases dramatically with the velocity change (Av) of the impacted car in the interval between lo-20 km/h. During recent years, much progress has been made in research concerning this issue. This includes new findings from injury statistics, better knowledge of injury mechanisms (even if they are not yet fully understood) and development of suitable rear impact dummies.

This paper describes a new sled test procedure involving two levels of rear impact severity. In the proposed procedure, a new neck injury criterion (NIC) which is a measure of the effect of violence to the neck, is used to evaluate the level of neck protection.

Seats, from two cars with different neck injury-risk rating (according to Swedish statistics), have been tested according to the new procedure and compared with a new seat concept. The results indicate that a seat back with a low yielding limit has a lower risk of neck injury, which is reflected in lower NIC-values.
Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv16/98s7o07.pdf

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Cited By (8)

Year	Entry
2003	Kullgren A, Eriksson L, Boström O, Krafft M. Validation of neck injury criteria using reconstructed real-life rear-end crashes with recorded crash pulses. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
1999	Eriksson L, Boström O. Assessing the influence of crash pulse, seat force characteristics, and head restraint position on NIC_max in rear-end crashes using a mathematical BioRID dummy. In: Proceedings of the 1999 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 23-24, 1999; Sitges, Spain.213-230.
2000	Ishikawa T, Okano N, Ishikura K, Ono K. An evaluation of prototype seats using BioRID-P3 and Hybrid III with TRLD neck. In: Proceedings of the 2000 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2000; Montpellier, France.379-391.
2002	Szabo TJ, Voss DP, Welcher JB. Influence of seat foam and geometrical properties on biorid p3 kinematic response to rear impacts. In: Proceedings of the 2002 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 18-20, 2002; Munich, Germany.
2005	Cappon H, Hell W, Hoschopf H, Muser M, Song E, Wismans J. Correlation of accident statistics to whiplash performance parameters using the RID3D and BioRID dummy. In: Proceedings of the 2005 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 21-23, 2005; Prague, Czech Republic.229-243.
2023	Edwards MA, Brumbelow ML. Relationship of whiplash injury metrics and crash pulse severity to injury claim rates. In: Proceedings of the 2023 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-165, 2023; Cambridge, United Kingdom.542-556.
2002	Eriksson L, Boström O. Assessing the relevance of NIC and its correlation with crash-pulse parameters: using the mathematical BioRID I in rear-end impacts. Traffic Inj Prev. 2002;3(2):175-182.
2002	Jakobsson L, Norin H. Suggestions for evaluation criteria of neck injury protection in rear-end car impacts. Traffic Inj Prev. 2002;3(3):216-223.