Pedestrian accidents make up nearly 30% of traffic accidents in Japan; therefore, measures have been taken to abate the number of casualties. In recent years, it has been noticed that the type of injury depends on the car type, especially on the front car-body shape. Having studied the whole body behaviour and injury of pedestrians in the case of accidents caused by sedan cars, a whole body impact experiment was conducted of pedestrians (post mortem human subjects) in the cases of sport utility vehicle (SUV) and mini-van using test specimens in order to examine the differences of injury that might be caused by the difference in the front car-body shape. As a result, not only the impact behaviours of the pedestrians when collided with a SUV or a mini-van but also the accelerated velocity that appeared on various parts of the body were identified. In addition, the results indicated that the trajectory of the head and the injuries were different from those in the past impact experiments of pedestrians using sedan cars. Basic data necessary for the analysis of injury mechanism of pedestrian accidents caused by SUV and mini-van were obtained which may be used for the injury-reproducing simulation using human models. For the covering abstract see ITRD E144229.
Abstract