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.