A NEW TEST DEVICE FOR PEDESTRIAN-VEHICLE ACCIDENT SIMULATION AND EVALUATION OF LEG INJURY CRITERIA

Tests using dummies to simulate real world accidents are very important to study the mechanism of impacts, particularly pedestrian-car accidents. Since only the dummy has been fitted with measuring devices like accelerometers, it is highly difficult to estimate the interaction between the dummy and the car to a fair degree of accuracy, using the measured acceleration-time histories. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the body forces in addition to the dummy accelerations in order to explain the impact mechanism more precisely. For this purpose, a body force measuring test vehicle has been developed at the Institute of Automotive Engineering, Berlin. A deformable unit which simulates the stiffness and geometrical measurements of a vehicle front is supported on load cells. This complete assembly is fixed on a very stiff chassis which allows measurement of the magnitude and direction of forces during the impact. To evaluate the results of the tests, certain criteria for estimating the severity of leg injuries were derived from the data of earlier investigations on cadavers. Both, the definition of a tolerance limit and severity index, are given and their advantages and limits are discussed. Subsequently, the force measurements can be correlated to those of injury criteria in order to establish the validity of injury severity during the simulated accident.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Association for Automotive Medicine

  801 Green Bay Road
  Lake Bluff, IL  United States  60044

  American Association for Automotive Medicine

  1211 West 22nd Street
  Oak Brook, IL  United States  60523
• Authors:
  • Kramer, M
• Conference:
  • 18th Annual Conference of the American Association for Automotive Medicine
  • Location: Toronto Ontario, Canada
  • Date: 1974-9-12 to 1974-9-14
• Publication Date: 1974

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15 p.
• Serial:
  • Volume: 18

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cadavers; Crash investigation; Crash tests; Dummies; Injuries; Measuring instruments; Pedestrian vehicle interface; Simulation; Traffic conflicts
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00081278
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-047-1-063, DOT-HS-031-2-303, DOT-FH-11-7526
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 26 1975 12:00AM