Injury Distributions of Belted Drivers in Various Types of Frontal Impact

Tony R. Laituri; Scott Henry; Kaye Sullivan

doi:10.4271/2015-01-1490

Injury distributions of belted drivers in 1998-2013 model-year light passenger cars/trucks in various types of real-world frontal crashes were studied. The basis of the analysis was field data from the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS). The studied variables were injury severity (n=2), occupant body region (n=8), and crash type (n=8). The two levels of injury were moderate-to-fatal (AIS2+) and serious-to-fatal (AIS3+). The eight body regions ranged from head/face to foot/ankle. The eight crash types were based on a previously-published Frontal Impact Taxonomy (FIT).

The results of the study provided insights into the field data. For example, for the AIS2+ upper-body-injured drivers, (a) head and chest injury yield similar contributions, and (b) about 60% of all the upper-body injured drivers were from the combination of the Full-Engagement and Offset crashes. For the AIS2+ lower-body-injured drivers, (a) knee/thigh/hip and foot/ankle injury yield similar contributions, and (b) about 60% of all lower-body-injured drivers were from the combination of the Full-Engagement and Offset crashes.

This analysis may help engineers inform their assessments of candidate countermeasures (e.g., quantification of real-world weighting factors for related optimization studies). Moreover, the analysis may help provide context for regulatory and public-domain considerations - both existing and proposed.

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Injury Distributions of Belted Drivers in Various Types of Frontal Impact 2015-01-1490

SAE MOBILUS