Are sidebags dangerous in certain seating positions?

Schroeder, Günter; Kallieris, Dimitrios; Tschäschke, Ulrich; Scheunert, Dieter; Schütz, Joachim; Zobel, Robert

Affiliations

¹Department of Forensic Medicine, Hanover Medical School, Germany

²Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University in Heidelberg

³Member of FAT

Abstract

Testing with Post Mortem Test Subjects (PMTS) has been carried out with different sidebag systems at the institutes of Forensic Medicine in Heidelberg and Hanover. Two systems, seat-mounted and door-mounted, were tested in critical seating positions with different testing procedures: static deployment tests, and dynamic impact tests into the door. The PMTS, equipped with three-dimensional accelerometers near the shoulder joint, the wrist, the elbow, the thorax, and the pelvis, were examined after the tests.

The experiments produced the following result: Neither significant additional injuries caused by the sidebag in the impact tests nor significant injuries during the inflation tests could be observed by autopsy after the tests.

The goal of this study was to estimate the injury risk due to worst case situations for the driver or passenger. Therefore, the results may not be used for efficiency studies of sidebags.

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Cited By (5)

Year	Entry
2010	Schmitt K-U, Niederer PF, Muser MH, Walz F. Trauma Biomechanics: Accidental Injury in Traffic and Sports. 2nd ed. Deidelberg, Germany: Springer; 2010.
2003	Kirk A, Morris A. Side airbag deployments in the UK: initial case reviews. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
2005	Morris A, Welsh R, Thomas P, Kirk A. Head and chest injury outcomes in struck-side crashes. In: Proceedings of the 2005 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 21-23, 2005; Prague, Czech Republic.73-83.
2009	Hallman J, Yoganandan N, Pintar F. Side airbag out-of-position deployments: thoracic injury to stationary and dynamic occupants. In: Proceedings of the 2009 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 9-11, 2009; York, UK.129-140.
2010	Hallman JJ. Detrimental Thoracoabdominal Interaction With Lateral Airbag Restraints [PhD thesis]. Wilwaukee, WI: Marquette University; December 2010.