Effects of pre-impact body orientation on traumatic brain injury in a vehicle–pedestrian collision Online publication date: Mon, 11-May-2009
by Atsutaka Tamura, Yuko Nakahira, Masami Iwamoto, Kazuaki Nagayama, Takeo Matsumoto
International Journal of Vehicle Safety (IJVS), Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008
Abstract: A series of minivan-pedestrian collisions was simulated, and pre-impact body orientation was found to considerably affect the mechanical responses of injury predictors for traumatic brain injury (TBI). The maximum average traction force generated in the cervical spinal cord prior to head strike took its peak value when the pedestrian was subjected to purely lateral head rotation in a sideways collision and decreased by up to one-half in a symmetric manner as the pedestrian changed his direction toward or away from the vehicle. The intracranial strain concentration and the cumulative strain damage measure following the head strike increased by more than 60% as the initial pedestrian configuration changed from the backward to frontal collision. Since the outcome of injury predictors is closely associated with an initial body facing angle to the striking vehicle, regulatory impactor tests should consider the effects of pre-impact body orientation for accurately assessing real-world TBIs in the future.
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