Accidental Injuries Caused by Automotive Frontal Collision

ABSTRACT This study aimed to use a simulated vehicle to asses quantitatively the head and neck injuries of the occupants, in a frontal car crash, when the driver has only one hand on the steering wheel, such as while using a cell phone when driving. First, we conducted a survey of NHTSA reports on real laboratory tests of frontal collisions involving sedans. The effects of these collisions on the neck of a Hybrid III 50th percentile male crash test dummy were measured in terms of average head acceleration and force along the X, Z, and Y-axes. These acceleration, force and torque values obtained from the NHTSA database were used to validate the simulated model. The results obtained were compared with case E, the standard dummy position used in frontal collision tests. The results obtained in the simulation of the four cases of driving with only one hand demonstrate a probability of more than 67% that the driver will sustain AIS+2 injuries during a frontal crash. In all the cases, the skull fracture percentage was the most representative, occurring between 89 and 94% of cases where the driver had only one hand on the steering wheel.