Quantification of side impact responses and injuries

the predictive validity of the Motorcycle Operator Skill Test (MOST) developed by McPherson and M&night (1976). It was anticipated that among licensed motorcyclists those scoring higher on this off-road skill test would be less likely to become involved in an accident than motorcyclists scoring lower. A sample of motorcycle operator license applicants was administered the MOST in addition to the regular licensing test. These motorcyclists were contacted about a year later and queried about their riding experiences including motorcycle accidents. Driver records were also searched for 6 months after the motorcycl~t was licensed. Although bivariate analyses indicated that high scorers on the MOST were more likely to have had an accident than low scorers, multivariate analyses revealed no effect of test performance on subsequent accident involvement. However, accident likelihood was found to decrease as a function of age and increase as a function of vehicle distance traveled (i.e., exposure). Quantification of Side Impact Responses and Injuries. D. KffZl~er~s,R, h&tern, G. Schmidt, and R. H. Eppinger, Proceedings of the 25th Stapp Cur Crash Conference, 1981, pp. 28-30. Side impacts have been shown to produce a large portion of both serious and fatal injuries within the total automotive crash problem. These injuries are produced as a result of the rapid changes in velocity an automobile occupant’s body experiences during a crash. Any improvement to the side impact problem will be brought about by means that will ultimately modify the occupant’s rapid body motions to such a degree that they will no longer produce injuries of serious consequences. The study observed responses and injuries to 10 fresh unembalmed cadaveric specimens in lateral impact

180

tests conducted under 4 different conditions - 24 km/h (15 mph) lateral impact into a rigid wall, 32 km/h (20 mph) lateral impact into a rigid wall, and 32 km/h (20 mph) lateral impact into two different types of padding material. Examination of the data reveals that the acceleration response of several specimens are almost identical for a given impact condition and this is in contrast to the variability of trauma outcome for the same set of tests. This leads to the conclusions that an anthropomorphic test device can be built that incorporates the mechanical characteristics of a large portion of the population and that to use this device .to ascertain the injury risk to a iarge and diverse population at risk, the injury functions used to predict the hazard must not only have kinematic parameters as independent variables but other physical descriptors of the population as well.

Road Crashes and Injuries in Quebec (1974): Patterns Among Many Variables. R. R. Bowbeau, C. 1;. Nadeau, R. L. Latour, and U. Maag, Accident Analysis and Prevention, 1981, 13(#), 349-355. Data on 1008 Quebec road victims obtained from linkage of governmental records have led to different types of analyses. This article presents an application of correspondence analysis to these data. We have chosen one example with its specific results showing expected association between variables and new, unexpected associations which are plausible. The resulting patterns indicate a clear distinction between hospitalized and nonhospitalized victims and between a rural and an urban type of road crash. This multidimensional approach gives an overall picture of the patterns among the vehicles studied, indicating which subsets of variables might be investigated further.

Journal of Safety Research