Road traffic injuries account for 1.35 million deaths and approximately 50 million injuries yearly according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2019). These injuries are unequally shared by the world’s population, with several vulnerable groups being overexposed to the effects of injuries. For instance, road injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults (5–29 years old). Recent research has pointed out that women are at a greater risk of death and of sustaining severe injuries under the same crash configurations as men (Bose et al., 2011). Elderly car occupants have been identified as particularly vulnerable to the deployment of contemporary safety systems such as airbags and seatbelts (Kent et al., 2009). While the seminal work done on Injury Biomechanics in the 1970’s–1980’s provided data to develop injury criteria that can be used with Anthropometric Test Devices (ATD), also known as crash test dummies or just dummies, there is a growing body of literature pointing out to the need of recognizing how differences between individuals may modify their specific risk to injuries (Forman et al., 2015). The source of this variability is not unique, but more and more research suggests that anthropometry, age and sex are significant factors influencing the injury tolerance of individuals. Thus, the goal of this Research Topic is to highlight how these biomechanical differences between population groups are identified and eventually incorporated into the design of effective safety systems capable of preventing injuries for all road users ...
Language: en
LA - en SN - 2296-4185 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.869356 ID - ref1 ER -