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Affiliation
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b School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University , Melbourne , Australia. |
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: Thoracic side airbags (tSABs) deploy within close proximity to the occupant. Their primary purpose is to provide a protective cushion between the occupant and the intruding door. To date various field studies investigating their injury mitigation has been limited and contradicting. The research develops efficacy estimations associated for the seat mounted tSAB in their ability to mitigate injury risk from the German collision environment.
METHODS: A matched cohort study using GIDAS data was implemented and aims to investigate the efficacy of seat mounted tSAB units in preventing thoracic injury. Inclusion into the study required a nearside occupant involved in a lateral collisions where the target vehicle exhibited a design year succeeding 1990. Collisions whereby a tSAB deploys were matched on a 1:n basis to similar severity collisions where no airbag was available in the target vehicle. The outcome of interest was an incurred bodily or thoracic-regional injury. Through conditional logistic regression, an estimated efficacy value for the deployed tSAB was determined.
RESULTS: A total of 255 collisions with the deployed tSAB matched with 414 collisions where no tSAB was present. For the given sample, results indicated that the deployed tSAB was not able to provide an unequivocal benefit to the occupant thoracic region, as injury risk for the individuals exposed to the deployed tSAB were at equal risk of injury (Tho.MAIS2+ OR = 1.04, 95% CI [0.41-2.62] and Tho.MAIS3+ OR = 1.15, 95% CI [0.41-3.18]). When attempting to isolate an effect for skeletal injuries, a similar result was obtained. Yet, when the tSAB was coupled with a head curtain airbag, a protective effect became apparent, most noticeable for HFN injuries (OR = 0.59, 95% CI, 0.21-1.65).
CONCLUSION: The reduction in occupant HFN injury risk associated with the coupled tSAB and curtain airbag may be attributable to its ability to provide coverage over previously-causing mechanism of injury. Yet, the sole presence of the tSAB showed no ability to provide additional benefit for the occupant's thoracic region. Future work should identify mechanisms of injury in the tSAB cases and attempt to quantify improvements in the vehicle ability to resist intrusion.
Language: en |