Objective measures for determining submarining and abdominal injury in hybrid III crash test dummies

The abdomen is the second most commonly injured body region in children in motor vehicle accidents and abdominal injuries have been attributed to ‘submarining’. Submarining is defined by pelvic rotation resulting in the lap belt sliding up and over the iliac crests of the pelvis, and the lap component of the seat belt penetrating the abdomen. However, the ability to assess submarining and abdominal injuries in the Hybrid III family of crash test dummies is limited to visual assessments of abdominal penetration by the seat belt. Abdominal inserts have been developed in an attempt to quantify the level of abdominal injury, but have not been validated to an extent in which they could be implemented universally in crash test dummies. This study aims to explore methods of assessing abdominal injury through analyzing measures that are associated with submarining. These measures include femur displacement, pelvic rotation and characteristics of the lap belt force trace.