Research summarised in this paper shows that for pedestrian accidents in Great Britain the most frequent causes of all serious injuries are impacts between the legs and the car bumper; between the upper legs, pelvis and abdomen and the leading edge of the bonnet and wings, and between the head and the top surface of the bonnet and wings, scuttle, windscreen frame or the ground. A European Consortium consisting of Association Peugot - Renault (APR) and Institut Nationale de Recherche sur les Transports et la Sécurité (INRETS) of France, Bundesanstalt für Strassenwesen (BASt) of Germany, Netherlands Central Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), led by TRRL and working within the framework of EEVC - Working Group 10 have developed proposals to evaluate the protection that is afforded by the frontal areas of a car. These proposals consist of three sub-systems tests to separately assess the bumper, leading edge of the bonnet and the top of the bonnet. The influence of the general shape of cars has been allowed for in determining the parameters of the tests. These parameters have been based on a vehicle speed of 40 km/h which has been shown to be the limit at which practical improvements inprotection can be made effective. Incorporating protection measures that are effective up to this speed is estimated to give an annual reduction in casualties of about 6 - 10% of the 1200 killed by cars and up to 30% of the 13,000 seriously injured. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference, see IRRD 840727.
Abstract