Injury patterns in side pole crashes

Abstract

Side impact pole/tree crashes can have devastating consequences. A series of 53 CIREN cases of narrow-object side impacts were analyzed. Twenty-seven of 53 had serious chest injury and 27 had serious head injury. Unilateral chest trauma led to the examination of residual crush pattern that often demonstrated oblique door intrusion into the occupant thorax space. It was hypothesized that unilateral chest trauma was caused by antero-lateral chest loading. This hypothesis was evaluated by conducting two (PMHS and ES2) vehicle side impact tests into a rigid pole. The PMHS test produced an oblique chest deformation pattern with injuries very similar to the real world trauma: unilateral rib fractures, spleen laceration, pelvic fracture, and a basilar skull fracture. Narrow-object side impacts are severe crash environments that can induce oblique chest loading and unique head trauma. Because the human may be more vulnerable in this type of crash scenario, dummy response and measurements, as well as a re-examination of side injury criteria may be necessary to design appropriate injury-mitigating safety devices.

Figure 1

Distribution of occupant age from the 53 CIREN cases.

Figure 2

Distribution of the number of CIREN cases analyzed by delta-V range.

Figure 3

Distribution of the number of CIREN cases analyzed by vehicle model year.

Figure 4

Bar graph representation of the number of CIREN case occupants with AIS=3+ trauma by body region. Note that each occupant may sustain multiple trauma.

Figure 5

Bar graph representation of the percentage of CIREN case occupants with a given AIS=3+ injury that also had serious head trauma.

Figure 6

Bar graph representation of the percentage of CIREN case occupants with a given AIS=3+ injury that also had serious lower extremity trauma.

Figure 7

Classification scheme to define location of maximum damage.

Figure 8

Distribution percentage of injuries in class-1 impacts.

Figure 9

Distribution percentage of injuries in class-2 impacts.

Figure 10

Distribution percentage of injuries in class-3 impacts.

Figure 11

Interior compartment photos demonstrating torqued seatback from two case occupants with unilateral chest trauma.

Figure 12

Chestband contours of the PMHS (left) and the ES2 dummy (right) tests in the laboratory vehicle pole tests.

Figure 13

Recorded and derived results from the experimental tests for the PMHS test and the ES2 dummy test.

Figure 14

Vehicle CG accelerations and velocities in the lateral direction and door velocities in front and rear portions recorded from lateral axis accelerometers.