Severity and mechanism of head impacts in car to pedestrian accidents

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Otte, Dietmar¹

Severity and mechanism of head impacts in car to pedestrian accidents

Proceedings of the 1999 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact

Affiliations

¹Accident Research Unit, Medical University Hannover / Germany
Abstract
This study will show results of 762 car to pedestrian collisions, documented in ln-depth Investigations on the scene at the Medical University Hannover/ Germany. ln-depth Investigations are carried out in Hannover since 25 years by a team of technicians and physicians by order of the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt). Deformation pattern of cars, description of injuries and contact points on the car and characteristics of special traces on the scene and on the vehicle are documented for analyzing injury mechanisms. A comprehensive reconstruction of motions of the pedestrian body is carried out and the collision speed is determined. The situation for the injuries are described in relation to collision speed.
- 70% of all accidents with pedestrians happened at an impact speed of up to 40 km/h, 30% were higher.
- Collision speed of more than 40 km/h have an injury severity risk of 31% MAIS 1, 65% MAIS 2-4 and 4% MAIS 5-6.
- 4.7% of the pedestrian heads colliding in the speed range of up to 40 km/h did suffer injuries during an impact to windscreen region, but 63.6% of the heads with speeds of more than 40 km/h suffered injuries from that region.
The detailed impact situation of the head in the area of the windscreen was analyzed and the deformation patterns of the glass and the frame was compared to the injury pattern of the head.

It could be pointed out that most of all windscreen impacts with the head occurred to the lower half part of the screen and a very low number to the glass near or on the frame region. The injury severity of the head is not significantly higher in the frame region than in the middle-part of the screen.

In this study improvements for reducing the injury severity are postulated and a proposal for an optimized test procedure is described.

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2006	Kendall R, Meissner M, Crandall J. The causes of head injury in vehicle-pedestrian impacts: comparing the relative danger of vehicle and road surface. In: Proceedings of the SAE World Congress & Exhibition. April 3-6, 2006; Detroit, MI. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 2006-01-0462.
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2001	Fredriksson R, Håland Y, Yang J. Evaluation of a new pedestrian head injury protection system with a sensor in the bumper and lifting of the bonnet’s rear part. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands. SAE 2001-06-0089.
2001	Akiyama A, Okamoto M, Rangarajan N. Development and application of the new pedestrian dummy. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2003	Berg A, Egelhaaf M, Ebner H-T. Estimation of benefits resulting from impactor-testing for pedestrian protection. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
2005	McCarthy M, Simmons I. Active pedestrian protection. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 6-9, 2005; Washington, DC.
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2007	Yang J, Otte D. A comparison study on vehicle traffic accident and injuries of vulnerable road users in China and Germany. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
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2001	Otte D, Pohlemann T. Analysis and load assessment of secondary impact to adult pedestrians after car collisions on roads. In: Proceedings of the 2001 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. October 10-12, 2001; Isle of Man, UK.
2002	Kramlich T, Langwieder K, Lang D, Hell W. Accident characteristics in car-to-pedestrian impacts. In: Proceedings of the 2002 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 18-20, 2002; Munich, Germany.
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2005	Yao J, Yang J, Otte D, Fredriksson R. Reconstruction of head-to-bonnet top impact in child pedestrian-to-passenger car crash. In: Proceedings of the 2005 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 21-23, 2005; Prague, Czech Republic.29-39.
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2007	Mordaka J, Kleiven S, van Schijndel-de Nooij M, de Lange R, Guerra Casanova LJ, Carter EL, von Holst H. The importance of rotational kinematics in pedestrian head to windshield impacts. In: Proceedings of the 2007 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 19-21, 2007; Maastricht, The Netherlands.83-94.
2012	Peng Y, Deck C, Yang J, Otte D, Willinger R. A study of kinematics of adult pedestrian and head impact conditions in case of passenger car collisions based on real world accident data. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 12-14, 2012; Dublin, Ireland.766-778.
2013	Alvarez VS, Fahlstedt M, Halldin P, Kleiven S. Importance of neck muscle tonus in head kinematics during pedestrian accidents. In: Proceedings of the 2013 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 11-13, 2013; Gothenburg, Sweden.747-761.
2016	Alvarez VS, Kleiven S. Importance of windscreen modelling approach for head injury prediction. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2016; Malaga, Spain.813-830.
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2002	Liu XJ, Yang JK, Lövsund P. A study of influences of vehicle speed and front structure on pedestrian impact responses using mathematical models. Traffic Inj Prev. 2002;3(1):31-42.
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