In the greater vicinity of Hannover, traffic accidents have been investigated and reconstructed by a team of medical doctors and engineers since 1973. The basis of this study is to find the difficulty of the injury situation between old and new vehicles, in order to evaluate the influence of existing safety elements as safety belt, air bag, steering column and others. A total of 4,700 traffic accidents were evaluated during the years 1985 to 1990, differentiated by accidents with vehicles built before and after 1980. The high protective effect of the safety belt has been demonstrated. Certain types of injuries however can still be associated with newer vehicles, and are demonstrated in this study. Measures for the modification of the steering wheel and the footroom region for instance are urgently needed. Within the framework of this study the usefulness of the air bag was quantified as follows: reduction in the number of most seriously injured by 56%, the number of seriously injured was reduced by 30%, and the number of minor injured by 13%. As far as lateral collisions are concerned, only an insignificant difference is shown between older and newer vehicles, but measures are called for in the future. Injury sources are quite frequently shown in lateral collisions by the side cross-ties, especially for large vehicles. No difference could be established between older and newer vehicles as far as the improvement for pedestrian safety by measures of modifying the shapes of the vehicle fronts is concerned. It was even established that collisions with new cars cause higher total injury severity degrees than old cars at the same impact speed. The analysis showed that the trend towards compact vehicles with less front-hood length contributes to this fact. In view of this deduction, countermeasures are urgently needed. (A)
Abstract