Title: Pedestrian kinematics due to impacts by various passenger cars using full-scale dummy

Authors: Yasuhiro Matsui, Adam Wittek, Masaaki Tanahashi

Addresses: Japan Automobile Research Institute, 2530 Karima Ibaraki 305-0822, Japan. ' The University of Western Australia, School of Mechanical Engineering, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia. ' Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association, Inc., 1-1-30 Shibadaimon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0012, Japan

Abstract: Experiments were performed in which a Polar (Honda R&D) full-scale dummy was impacted by a medium-size sedan at a speed of 11.1 m/s in order to estimate the risk of injury to the pedestrian|s chest and to determine the impact conditions of the head, thigh/waist and leg. The results obtained in these experiments were compared with those reported in the literature for compact car and SUV. The present study suggests the following: the risk of chest injury due to the passenger car impact seems extremely low; the EEVC/WG17 upper legform test procedure seems to overestimate the energy of the impact between the pedestrian waist and SUV front, whereas it appropriately simulates the energy of impact between the pedestrian thigh and front of a medium-size sedan and compact car; and the EEVC/WG17 headform test procedure may overestimate the severity of impact between the car front and the pedestrian|s head.

Keywords: chest injury risk; EEVC/WG17 impactor test; full-scale pedestrian dummy; head impact angle; head impact speed; pedestrian protection; upper legform impact energy; pedestrian kinematics; car accidents; thigh impact; vehicle safety; pedestrian injuries; pedestrian safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2005.007538

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2005 Vol.1 No.1/2/3, pp.64 - 84

Published online: 03 Aug 2005 *

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