A study was made of 290 collisions containing 464 front seat car occupants. Of the 405 injured occupants, 141 received their lower extremity injuries against the instrument panel.
The occupant’s most serious injury was related to car model year, age of occupant, vehicle weight, and estimated impact speed. Statistically, a regression analysis shows a very strong correlation of these variables and collision injury.
It is significant that the number of lower extremity injuries drops steeply for vehicles from 1957 through 1967.
Rear seat occupant injuries were not considered in this paper.