Among pedestrian safety tests, the upper legform to bonnet leading edge test procedure has been regularly criticised for being neither biofidelic nor relevant.

In this study, the injuries to the femur and the pelvis in pedestrian-vehicle accidents are re-examined in terms of pedestrian, vehicle and impact parameters. Pedestrian accidents of four European in-depth databases (German, Austrian, French and Swedish) were analysed.

In total, 2,405 AIS 2+ and 978 AIS 3+ injuries were analysed. The relative frequency of pelvic combined with upper femoral injuries ranged from 2% to 15% depending on the underlying data set. Less than 4% of all AIS 2+ and AIS 3+ injuries were caused by the bonnet leading edge area. A high proportion (70-88%) of pelvic injuries cannot be assigned to the bonnet leading edge directly. Older people and females showed higher odds of suffering pelvic injuries. Among modern cars with year of market introduction after 2000, Small MPVs & Superminis have higher odds for pelvic injuries than Large & Small Family Cars. It has to be investigated, which measures are most effective in reducing pelvic and upper femoral injuries for the relevant population of pedestrians.