The purpose of this paper is to assess the vehicle environment that a child occupant, between the ages of seven and thirteen years old, is exposed to in a real world crash. The focus of analysis is on those child occupants that are seated at the struck side in a lateral collision. Based upon the analysis of the NASS/CDS (Crashworthiness Data Sysem) data between the years of 1991 and 2006, the following conclusions define the crash environment that is experienced by a child occupant, between the ages of 7 and 13 years old, when seated adjacent to the struck side of a vehicle involved in a lateral collision. A principal direction of force of 60 degrees (oblique to pure frontal) was most the most likely to occur, and could also be attributed to a substantial degree of occupant harm. The NASS PDOF shows a significant longitudinal component in lateral crashes in the real world. The average extent of damage to the side of the vehicle, extended far into zone 2 (based on the Extent of Damage of SAE standard J224). This average is consistent with the Extent of Damage found in the struck vehicles used in the existing NCAP and IIHS side impact tests. The total AV at the region of average harm in all NASS cases was 25 km/h. This average is the same order of magnitude as the AV found in the struck vehicles used in the existing NCAP and IIHS side impact tests. It was possible to identify what interior surfaces were intruding into the child's seating area, and associate that child with their consequent harm. A total of 72% of the harm could be associated with intrusion by the side interior equal to that of the highest magnitude of intrusion. There appears to be a significant relationship between the level of harm and the presence or non-presence of side intrusion. Injuries sustained by the head account for approximately half of the total harm. Measures to help better protect the head of child occupants from the side interior, such as increased padding of the vehicle interior or curtain airbags, may result in a reduction of the overall societal cost of side impact collisions.
Side impact risk for 7-13 year old children
Seitenaufprallrisiko für Kinder im Alter von 7-13 Jahren
2008
10 Seiten, 17 Bilder, 3 Tabellen, 19 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Side impact risk for 7-13 year old children
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