Car occupant injury patterns with special reference to chest and abdominal jnjuries caused by seat belt loading

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Hill, J. R.¹; Mackay, G. M.¹; Morris, A. P.¹; Smith, M. T.¹; Little, S.¹

Car occupant injury patterns with special reference to chest and abdominal jnjuries caused by seat belt loading

Proceedings of the 1992 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact

Affiliations

¹Accident Research Centre, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Abstract

This is a two-part paper. The first section concerns the circumstances and injuries of front seat car occupants who received injuries of severity AIS ≥ 2 in a car crash, compared to a group of fatal occupants. The paper compares the nature and severity of injuries sustained by survivors and fatalities in comparable collision circumstances. In frontal impacts, restrained front seat occupants tend to receive injuries from the steering wheel and/or seat belt, to the head and chest respectively. Many occupants survived but with serious thoracic injury caused by seat belt loading. This problem is addressed by specifically examining seatbelt induced injuries to the chest and abdomen.

In part two, AIS 1 injuries to the chest and abdomen were found to be very common. 6.1% of the total database were found to have sustained an AIS ≥ 2 injury to either the chest or abdomen caused only by the seat belt, the majority of these injuries being fractures to the ribs and sternum. The chest was more frequently injured than the abdomen. Types of injury, trends in injury severities, and factors such as speed change and occupant characteristics are discussed. 0.4% of occupants on the database sustained fatal injuries from their seat belt.

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Cited By (10)

Year	Entry
1994	Mackay M, Parkin S, Scott A. Intelligent restraint systems: what characteristics should they have? In: Advances in Occupant Restraint Technologies: Joint AAAM-IRCOBI Special Session. September 22, 1994; Lyon, France.113-126.
1996	Chabert L, Ghannouchi S, Cavallero C, Bonnoit J. Anatomical study and three-dimensional reconstruction of the belted human body in seated position. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.1598-.
1998	Bandstra R, Meissner U, Warner CY, Monoghan S, Mendelsohn R, MacPherson D. Seat-belt injuries in medical and statistical perspectives. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.1347-1359.
1998	Mackay M, Hassan AM, Hill JR. Observational studies of car occupants’ positions. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.1465-1472.
2007	Brumbelow ML, Baker BC, Nolan JM. Effects of seat belt load limiters on driver fatalities in frontal crashes of passenger cars. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
1993	Nilson G, Håland Y. A force-limiting device to reduce the seat-belt loading to the chest and the abdomen in frontal impacts. In: Proceedings of the 1993 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 8-10, 1993; Eindhoven, The Netherlands.379-393.
2001	Cuerden R, Hill J, Kirk A, Mackay M. The potential effectiveness of adaptive restraints. In: Proceedings of the 2001 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. October 10-12, 2001; Isle of Man, UK.
2016	Gaylor L, Suarez del Fueyo R, Junge M. Crashworthiness improvements of the vehicle fleet. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2016; Malaga, Spain.592-605.
2017	Simms CK. The need for accident investigation: Murray Mackay’s work presented at Conferences of the International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury from 1973 to 2013. In: Proceedings of the 2017 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-15, 2017; Antwerp, Belgium.xii-xxi.
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