Biomechanics of side impact injuries: evaluation of seat belt restraint system, occupant kinematics and injury potential.

Side impact crashes are the second most severe motor vehicle accidents resulting in serious and fatal injuries. One of the occupant restraint systems in the vehicle is the three point lap/shoulder harness. However, the lap/shoulder restraint is not effective in a far-side crash (impact is opposite to the occupant location) since the occupant may slip out of the shoulder harness.

Design of rapid medical evacuation system for trauma patients resulting from biological and chemical terrorist attacks.

In the event of a large scale, biological or chemical terrorist attack it is unlikely that local emergency response organizations will have sufficient quantities of dedicated ambulances to evacuate all of the affected victims. As a potential solution to this problem, we have developed a device that can be retrofitted to a variety of government or civilian utility vehicles in order to convert them for emergency medical transport (US Pat. 7,028,351).

Biomechanical evaluation of occupant anthropometry during frontal collisions.

The present study examines the biomechanical implications of 3-point lap/shoulder seat belts and frontal air bags to the injury probabilities for occupants of varying anthropometry, during frontal collisions. Using Mathematical Dynamic Modeling (MADYMO) software, a variety of simulated frontal crash tests were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of seat belts and air bags in reducing probability of injury to different sized occupants. The simulations included virtual models of the 5th percentile female, 50th percentile male, and 95th percentile male to represent three occupant size classes.

Effect of roof strength in injury mitigation during pole impact.

Motor vehicle accidents involving pole impacts often result in serious head and neck injuries to occupants. Pole impacts are typically associated with rollover and side collisions. During such events, the roof structure is often deformed into the occupant survival space.

Biomechanics of under ride motor vehicle crashes.

The present study evaluates the biomechanical aspects of injuries sustained by occupants of passenger cars during collisions with the trailer portion of a tractor/trailer rig. In such collisions, the occupants of the passenger car often sustain serious injuries when the passenger car passes beneath the trailer. This process by which the car "underrides" the trailer occurs due to the mismatch in height between the lowermost edge of the trailer and the crash mitigation structures in the vehicle.

Investigation of injury potential through matched pair drop testing.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded that there is a relationship between roof intrusion and the risk of injury to belted occupants in rollovers events. Previous testing on many different production vehicle types indicates that damage consistent with field rollover accidents can be achieved through inverted drop testing from small drop heights. It has been shown in previous drop test pairs with Hybrid III dummies, that the amount of roof intrusion is related to occupant neck injury.

Biomechanical analysis of occupant kinematics in rollover motor vehicle accidents: dynamic spit test.

A better understanding of occupant kinematics in rollover accidents helps to advance biomechanical knowledge and to enhance the safety features of motor vehicles. While many rollover accident simulation studies have adopted the static approach to delineate the occupant kinematics in rollover accidents, very few studies have attempted the dynamic approach. The present work was designed to study the biomechanics of restrained occupants during rollover accidents using the steady-state dynamic spit test and to address the importance of keeping the lap belt fastened.

The effect of roof strength on reducing occupant injury in rollovers.

Roof crush occurs and potentially contributes to serious or fatal occupant injury in 26% of rollovers. It is likely that glazing retention is related to the degree of roof crush experienced in rollover accidents. Occupant ejection (including partial ejection) is the leading cause of death and injury in rollover accidents.

Testing and injury potential analysis of rollovers with narrow object impacts.

Recent statistics highlight the significant risk of serious and fatal injuries to occupants involved in rollover collisions due to excessive roof crush. The government has reported that in 2002. Sports Utility Vehicle rollover related fatalities increased by 14% to more than 2400 annually.

Multivariate head injury threshold measures for various sized children seated behind vehicle seats in rear impacts.

Government recommendations to place children into the rear areas of motor vehicles to avoid airbag induced injuries have been complicated by the fact that most adult occupied front seats will collapse into the rear area during rear-impacts, and thus pose another potentially serious injury hazard to rear-seated children. Many variables affect whether or not a front seat occupant will collapse into the rear child, and whether that interaction could be injurious to the child. For instance, the severity of rear impact, coupled with front and rear occupant sizes (mass and stature), and the level of front seat strength, all interrelate to influence whether or not a rear seated child is likely to be impacted and possibly injured.

Biomechanics of seat belt restraint system.

Seat belt system restrains and protects occupants in motor vehicle crashes and any slack in seat belt system induces additional loading on occupant. Signs of belt loading are more obvious in high-speed frontal collisions with heavy occupants. However subtle changes may occur at low speeds or with low forces from occupants during rollovers.

Biomedical engineering analysis of glass impact injuries.

This article outlines the history, development, and safety aspects of glass and its use in motor vehicles. It traces the manufacture and describes the characteristics of laminated and tempered glass. It further compares the differences in injuries caused by impact with laminated and tempered glass.

Experimental injury study of children seated behind collapsing front seats in rear impacts.

In the mid 1990's the U.S. Department of Transportation made recommendations to place children and infants into the rear seating areas of motor vehicles to avoid front seat airbag induced injuries and fatalities.

Inverted drop testing and neck injury potential.

Inverted drop testing of vehicles is a methodology that has long been used by the automotive industry and researchers to test roof integrity and is currently being considered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a roof strength test. In 1990 a study was reported which involved 8 dolly rollover tests and 5 inverted drop tests. These studies were conducted with restrained Hybrid III instrumented Anthropometric Test Devices (ATD) in production and rollcaged vehicles to investigate the relationship between roof strength and occupant injury potential.

Biomechanical injury evaluation of laminated side door windows and sunroof during rollover accidents.

Significantly more fatalities and serious injuries occur due to ejection in roll over accidents. The present study was conducted to determine the occupant retention and head-neck injury potential aspects of laminated glass in side door windows and sunroofs during roll over accidents. The test protocol for this study was based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) studies for advanced glazing.

Motor vehicle seat belt restraint system analysis during rollover.

The multi-planar and multiple impact long duration accident sequence of a real world rollover results in multidirectional vehicle acceleration pulses and multiplanar occupant motions not typically seen in a planar crash sequence. Various researchers have documented that, while contemporary production emergency locking seatbelt retractors (ELRs) have been found to be extremely effective in the planar crashes in which they are extensively evaluated, when subjected to multi-planar acceleration environments their response may be different than expected. Specifically, accelerations in the vertical plane have been shown to substantially affect the timeliness of the retractors inertial sensor moving out of its neutral position and locking the seat belt.

Biomechanical analysis of motor vehicle seat belt buckles.

Various studies have reported that inertially sensitive buckles are susceptible to impact unlatching. The present work synthesizes the results from various experimental studies conducted over the years to study the mechanical behavior of buckles and subsequent injuries to occupants. First, the side press button seat buckle due to impact a lateral impact from an adjacent child restraint seat component indicated that the side button RCF-67 buckle released at a speed of 2.

Restraints and occupant kinematics in vehicular rollovers.

Occupant kinematics and the potential for injury in vehicular rollover crashes are dramatically affected by various restraint system characteristics. This study reviews previous research that utilized various methodologies and test fixtures to evaluate restrained occupant motions, primarily in the vertical direction, during both inverted and quasi-static simulated rollover environments. Additional laboratory tests were conducted in order to understand the static and dynamic excursion of restrained humans and surrogates in typical production motor vehicles under inverted circumstances.

Biomechanical analysis of head-neck force in hybrid III dummy during inverted vertical drops.

The hybrid III dummy has been used extensively for crash testing. The comparison between the cadaver and dummy data provides the biofidelic nature of dummy head-neck system to predict cervical spine injury as a function of applied force. The existing dummy data are limited to a lower drop height up to 0.

Biomechanical analysis of padding in child seats and head injury.

Head injury is a common finding for infants and young children involved in automobile accidents. Although the child restraint seats have increased the level of safety for the pediatric population, skull fracture and/or brain injury occur during the interaction between the child's head and interior of the car seats with no padding. The introduction of effective and sufficient padding may significantly reduce the head injury.