Comparison of thoracic injury risk in frontal car crashes for occupant restrained without belt load limiters and those restrained with 6 kN and 4 kN belt load limiters.

This paper reports on 347 real-world frontal accidents where the EES (Equivalent Energy Speed) ranged from 35 to 75 km/h. One hundred and ninety-eight of these accidents involved cars equipped with the 6 kN load limiter, and 149 involved cars equipped with the 4 kN load limiter. Based on this accident data, the study compares the thoracic injury risk for two occupant populations: belted occupants involved in accidents in which vehicles were not equipped with a load limiter (378 cases with pyrotechnic pretensioners), and belted occupants involved in accidents in which vehicles were equipped with 4 or 6 kN load limiters and pyrotechnic pretensioners (347 cases). One observes that a 4 kN load limitation results in a very important reduction of thoracic injury risk for all Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) levels, compared to other samples. 50 to 60% reduction for AIS 2+ was observed, as well as 75 to 85% for AIS 3+. The complete absence of AIS 4+ with a 4 kN load limiter must be stressed, though it remains more than 8% for the other samples (no limiter and 6 kN limiter). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E206605.