Experimental Pedestrian Accident Reconstructions-Head Impacts

摘要

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is conducting research to develop methods of reducing pedestrian head injury due to automobile hood contact at speeds less than or equal to 30 miles per hour (48 kph). The development of techniques used to simulate head impacts on vehicle surfaces is described in the paper. The first task analyzed a set of pedestrian cadaver tests. The second task completed an extensive set of accident reconstructions. The results of the best adult accident reconstructions were used to establish correlation between test responses and injury severity experienced in the accidents. Using impactor response as input, two head injury prediction techniques were found to correlate well with actual injury severity.