Characteristics of pole impacts to side of passenger cars in European traffic accidents and assessment of injury mechanisms--analysis of German and UK in-depth data.

The national accident statistics demonstrate that the situation of passenger car side impacts is dominated by car-to-car accidents. Car side-to-pole impacts are relatively infrequent events but result in disproportionate rates of serious and fatal injuries when compared to those in car-to-car side impact. Hence their importance has been highlighted in recent studies.