Citation

Otte D. Proc. Assoc. Adv. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1993; 37: 420-421.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

382 lateral collisions to nearsided belted drivers were analyzed. Representative traffic crashes were investigated in a statistical spot-check plan directly at the site of the accident by a team of scientists. 32% of all car to car collisions occur to the lateral region. The left-side is more frequently involved (18.2%) than the right (13.8%). In car to object collisions, 39% are lateral impacts. To understand the load conditions for the occupants, impact mechanisms and relative movements are of importance, as the result of direction by the impulse angle of the transferred impact to the vehicle. 60.5% of lateral collisions involve intrusion into the occupant compartment; 39.5% do not. Side impacts angled between 30-degrees and 45-degrees are the most frequent, with 43.6% involving intrusion and 38.6% not involving intrusion. The injury severity in collisions involving intrusion is visibly higher than in collisions not involving intrusion. 64.9% of the nearside sitting passengers in collisions with no intrusion were injured. However, no injury severity above MAIS 2 were registered. Where intrusion did occur, only 40.9% of the nearside sitting front passengers remained without injuries; in 4.3%, MAIS > 2 injuries were observed. Vehicles in which nearside seated front passengers were uninjured hardly showed any intrusion, while for injured passengers, intrusion was present in addition to an increasing injury severity.

Intrusion was always observed with MAIS > 2 injuries. For the different body regions, with the exception of neck injuries, a higher injury risk was present in an impact involving intrusion. The most frequently injured body regions in lateral collisions are the head with 23.5%, the upper extremities with 14.3%, the thorax with 13.3%, and the lower extremities with 10.7%. Severe injuries were not seen in side impacts with intrusion of < 20 cm. In lateral impacts to the compartment region, there were no uninjured nearside sitting passengers with intrusion of more than 40%. With intrusion of 50 cm and more, the probability of greater than MAIS 3 injuries can be expected.

Injuries in lateral collisions are not limited to the side region. Frontal interior components are quite frequently involved. The safety belt, which does not basically provide any protection in lateral collisions, took crash load in 38% of the thorax injuries. 43.6% of the head injuries occur with an impact to the side window. 11.6% of these head injuries were AIS 2-3.

To address these real world accident conditions, the following requirements should be addressed: improvement of crash test conditions; strengthening of the compartment interior; adaptation of energy transmission; and compatibility of vehicles. Side impact crash testing should be carried out at an impulse direction between 30 and 45 degrees offset from fully frontal. The impact point must be in an area in front of the A-pillar. At a delta V of 40 km/h, 90% of all side collisions would be included.

A rigid occupant compartment would provide more space for the relative movement of the passengers. However, it would also increase the impact load to the occupants. Therefore, increased interior side door padding is necessary. Padding in a z-direction to the side door structure could provide more compatibility with the height of the impacting front of the striking car.