Browse Publications Technical Papers 791008
1979-02-01

Injuries to Pedestrians in Real Accidents and Their Relation to Collision and Car Characteristics 791008

Protection of pedestrians in car collisions is now an important aim of accident research. However, only few results deal with real world pedestrian accidents and the consequences of injury.
In this paper results with regard to accident and injury characteristics of pedestrian are presented on a basis of 3 000 real world accidents.
Location and intensity of pedestrian primary impact on the car is stated. Head and leg injuries are predominant pedestrian injuries. The influence of pedestrian age was clearly confirmed. Elderly adults sustain more fractures of lower limb, pelvis and upper thigh. Children reveal a high incidence of head, torso and upper thigh injuries due to their relative height. In fact that about 20 % of the injured pedestrians are children only between 6 and 9 years of age, safety requirements of children should be included to a higher degree in the optimization of the car front end.
Typical influence of car form on injury incidence was found. Pedestrian overall injury severity was about balanced with same advantage for the “v” form as compared to the “pontoon” form. Typical differences exist with regard to individual body areas. Lower limb injuries are over-represented with the “v” form; “pontoon” form cars have a higher incidence of abdominal and upper thigh injuries. Serious/fatal head injuries were found to have equal frequency with both car forms.
In spite of the remaining risks of road contact, pedestrian safety in car collisions can be positivly influenced by measures of vehicle technology and by optimization of car front structures.

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