A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL FOR PEDESTRIAN INJURY REDUCTION THROUGH VEHICLE DESIGN

Two different vehicle design strategies for reducing pedestrian injury severity are compared, by assessing their effect on a sample of real accidents (Great Britain) and by weighting the results to estimate the total population effect. The first strategy, aimed at reducing the frequency of serious head injuries, maintains the stiffness of current front structures (bumper and front edge of the hood) but modifies the top surface of the hood, fenders, and windshield frame to prevent serious head contact injuries up to 30 kph. This design approach would result in less than a 5% reduction in the number of pedestrians seriously injured after being struck by the front of a car. The second strategy, aimed at reducing serious leg and pelvic injuries, alters the stiffness of the front structures to provide tolerable impacts up to 40 kph. Since this approach offers at least a 20% reduction in the number of seriously injured pedestrians, it is concluded that the adoption of full-face compliant front structures offers the best initial approach to pedestrian injury mitigation.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Published in HS-030 682 (SAE-P-88), "Stapp Car Crash Conference (24th) Proceedings," Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 1980, pp 607-35. Conference held in Troy, Michigan, 15-17 October 1980. Research sponsored by Transport and Road Research Laboratory.
• Corporate Authors:

  Birmingham University, England

  Accident Research Unit
  Birmingham B15 2TT, Warwickshire,   England 
• Authors:
  • Ashton, S J
• Publication Date: 1980

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 29 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attenuation (Physics); Crash cushions; Crash injury research; Frontal crashes; Head; Injuries; Injury severity; Lower extremities; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Pelvis; Safety engineering; Vehicle design; Vehicle front end
• Uncontrolled Terms: Severity
• Old TRIS Terms: Head trauma; Lower extremity
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00371828
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: SAE-801315, HS-030 699
• Files: HSL, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 29 1983 12:00AM