Citation

Xu J, Li Y, Lu G, Zhou W. Int. J. Impact Eng. 2009; 36(6): 783-788.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2008.11.008

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Worldwide significant efforts have been made to improve the protection of vulnerable road users against injuries and deaths, especially for pedestrians. However, the situation of pedestrian safety is still severe and worrying. China has been consistently ranked as a country with high percentage of pedestrian fatality rates because of its mixed traffic and transportation ways. According to the Road Traffic Accident Annual Census Report of China [1] Traffic management bureau of Police Ministry. Road traffic accident annual census report of China. Beijing; 2007.[1], more than 89,455 persons died in at least 378,781 accident cases in 2006, among which, pedestrian accounted for 26.01%, the highest proportion of all traffic fatalities. On the average, in China, a pedestrian is injured in every 5 min and one is killed in every 17 min. Even in a country where the traffic management is comparatively well organized, for example, the US, pedestrian safety is also the focus of public safety. In 1999 in the US, there were 4907 pedestrian killed, weighting 12% of all traffic fatalities. Reconstruction of pedestrian-vehicle accident is a worldwide problem. Numerous previous studies have been carried out on accidents with vehicular skid marks or definite pedestrian throw distances. However, little could be done if marks or throw distances cannot be obtained in accident reconstruction. This paper first describes the physical model of dynamic process of pedestrian head impact on windshield glazing. Some simplifications are made to obtain a better and more practical model, including discussing the support boundary conditions. Firstly, the paper modeled the relations between pedestrian impact speed and deflection of windshield glazing based on the impact dynamics and thin plate theory. Later, the relations of vehicle impact speed and deflection are discussed. Therefore, a model of vehicle impact speed versus deflection of windshield glazing is developed. The model is then verified by ten real-world accident cases to demonstrate its accuracy and reliability. This model provides investigators a new method to reconstruct pedestrian-vehicle accidents.