The vulnerable road users (VRUs) tend to sustain serious injuries in accidents. There are various types of accident scenarios, and VRUs show various behaviors before and after impacts. In this paper, we analyzed 400 VRU accident cases (200 pedestrians and 200 two‐wheelers) with video information. The VRUs before/during/after collision parameters (e.g., accident scenarios, VRU avoidance motion, kinematics and trajectory during vehicle impact, and ground contact) were examined. The emergency avoidance motions of the VRUs before collision were: jumping, hands up to prevent, and others. 66% of the pedestrians and 53.5% of the two‐wheelers showed avoidance motions before collisions. Pedestrians typically have higher rotation angles than riders on two‐wheelers during vehicle collisions, and two‐wheeler's riders’ kinematics are more complicated especially when caused by the side impact. Pedestrian rotation angles greater than 90 degrees were observed in over 45% pedestrian collisions. The kinematics of the pedestrian and two‐wheelers depends on the vehicle front‐end shape and impact velocity. In the ground impact, the order of VRU body regions making contact against the ground depends on the landing posture. The analysis of VRUs before/during/after collisions using accident videos would be useful for comprehensive understanding of VRU accidents.
Keywords:
Vulnerable road user, pedestrian accident, two‐wheelers accident, Kinematics, Ground impact