Crash pulse recorders in rear impacts: real life data

AIS 1 neck injuries have become the most common injury in vehicle crashes, especially rear impacts. Research has shown that there are variations in rear impacts causing initial symptoms and residual disability to the neck. Therefore impacts in which the duration of symptoms differ need to be separated in analyses. Concerning AIS 1 neck injury, crash severity is usually measured as change of velocity. The correlation between injury risk and impact severity parameters based on acceleration levels is to a high extent unknown. In this study, the results from crash recordings of real life rear impacts are presented where the change of velocity and the crash pulse is measured. Out of 22 impacts, it was shown that most of the occupants that sustained symptoms the shape of the crash pulse varied considerably and the peak acceleration varied from 2.7g to 14.7g. In one impact the occupant had whiplash symptoms six months after the collision (peak acceleration 14.7g) and in another impact, two months after, when this article was written (peak acceleration 12.6g). Also, high change of velocity (greater than 20km/h) does not have to cause disability to the neck at least when the mean acceleration is less than 7g and no clear peaks exist. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD E102514.

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