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Pediatric occupant-vehicle contact maps in rollover motor vehicle crashes
Aditya N Belwadi1, Caitlin M Locey, Todd J Hullfish
1a The Center for Injury Research and Prevention , The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania.
Insights
Pediatric occupants in rollover crashes frequently sustain head injuries from vehicle structure contact. Improving rollover mitigation strategies requires further research into child injury mechanisms.
Area of Science:
- Trauma research
- Pediatric safety
- Vehicle dynamics
Background:
- Rollover crashes represent over 33% of US motor vehicle fatalities.
- Pediatric-specific data on rollover crash injuries is limited.
- Current rollover mitigation strategies need evaluation with updated data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze injury causation for child occupants in US rollover crashes.
- To identify common injury patterns and mechanisms in pediatric passengers.
- To inform the development of improved rollover safety measures.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) database (1998-2013).
- Included rollover crashes of passenger vehicles (model year 1998+) with restrained pediatric occupants (0-19 years, excluding drivers).
- Developed vehicle component and occupant-vehicle contact maps from CIREN data.
Main Results:
- 15 out of 20 included cases reported injuries from vehicle structure contact.
- The head was the most frequently seriously injured body region.
- Head injuries often resulted from contact with the roof side rail or interior, especially with significant component intrusion (≥20 cm).
Conclusions:
- Pediatric head injuries in rollovers are often caused by vehicle structure contact.
- Outboard seating positions pose a higher risk for head injury.
- Further research using computational modeling and testing is recommended to enhance current mitigation strategies.
Objective:
Rollover crashes account for more than 33% of all motor vehicle-related fatalities and have the highest fatality risk of all crash types, at 1.37% in the United States. There is increased awareness of the high fatality rate associated with this crash type, but there is very limited pediatric-specific data related to rollover crashes in the United States. Recent focus on rollover mitigation has resulted in implementation of countermeasures, making it important to evaluate injury causation for child occupants in rollover crashes with a more current data set.
Methods:
We queried the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) from case years 1998 through 2013. Rollover crashes for passenger vehicles of model year 1998 or newer with at least one restrained occupant (excluding drivers) between 0 and 19 years of age were included. Vehicle-involved physical component and occupant-vehicle contact maps were developed with the CIREN data set.
Results And Conclusions:
Of the 20 CIREN cases that met the inclusion criteria, 15 had one or more injuries attributed to contact with some part of the vehicle structure. The CIREN analyses revealed that the head was the most common seriously injured body region, primarily due to contact with the roof side rail and/or vehicle interior. This finding was true for both adolescents and younger pediatric passengers in outboard seating positions. Fifty percent of head injury causation scenarios involving the vehicle interior had component intrusion of 20+ cm at the point of contact. Further exploration of pediatric rollover injury mechanisms using computational modeling and real-world testing is recommended in order to improve upon current mitigation strategies.
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