Delta-v slope as an indicator of injury. (19th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hauschild, Hans; Halloway, Dale; Pintar, Frank
• Is Part Of: Traffic injury prevention. Volume 22:Supplement 1(2021)
• Page Start: S165
• Page End: S169
• Publication Date: 2021-10-19
• Subjects: Delta-v -- slope -- CIREN -- EDR -- crash test -- crash severity; Traffic safety -- Periodicals; Traffic accidents -- Periodicals; Wounds and injuries -- Prevention -- Periodicals; 363.125
• DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2021.1982615
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1538-9588

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: This study's objective was to examine a crash severity characteristic and the relationship as an indicator of abdominal injury causation. Methods: Data were analyzed from 23 CIREN case vehicles involved in a frontal type collision, had an AIS 2+ abdominal injury, and contained an electronic data recorder (EDR) download. Data was downloaded from the NHTSA and IIHS crash test databases for comparison. Data was run through a MATLAB algorithm calculating the maximum velocity-time profile slope. This data was compared to the available crash tests. Results: The CIREN vehicle EDR velocity-time slopes ranged from 233 m/s 2 to 434 m/s 2 for crashes with a delta-v range of 42 km/h to 77 km/h. NHTSA NCAP comparable data was available for all cases, and the slopes ranged from 263 m/s 2 to 405 m/s 2 calculated from the collected accelerometer. Three comparable tests were available from the IIHS database and the calculated slopes ranged from 252 m/s 2 to 298 m/s 2 . Four test vehicles had EDR data, two each from NHTSA and IIHS and slopes ranged from 245 m/s 2 to 281 m/s 2 . The crash test EDRs slope calculations were lower than the accelerometer data. Nine of the 12 case vehicles had slope values lower than the comparable NCAP accelerometer velocity-time slopes. Conclusions: Vehicle velocity-time profile can be beneficial to examine the characteristics of crash severity and potential injury. This small sample of field crashes did not indicate a clear relationship of abdominal injury related to crash severity measured by the EDR delta-v slope. EDR results can be considered when determining crash severity, but the limitations need to be understood.