Upper extremity injuries related to air bag deployments

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Huelke, Donald F.¹; Moore, Jamie L.¹; Compton, Timothy W.¹; Samuels, Jonathan²; Levine, Robert S.²

Upper extremity injuries related to air bag deployments

Advances in Occupant Restraint Technologies: Joint AAAM-IRCOBI Special Session

Affiliations

¹University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

²Wayne State University
Abstract

From our crash investigations of air bag equipped passenger cars, a subset of upper extremity injuries are presented that are related to air bag deployments. Contusions, abrasions, and sprains are not uncommonly reported. Infrequently, hand and digit fractures have been sustained and, in isolated cases, fractures of the forearm bones. The close proximity of the forearm or hand to the air bag module door is related to most of the fractures identified. Steering wheel air bag deployments can fling the hand-forearm into the instrument panel, rearview mirror or windshield, as indicated by contact scuffs, tissue debris or the star burst (spider web) pattern of windshield breakage.

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