An analysis has been undertaken of the PENDANT data that specifically reviews the injury outcome in modern European passenger cars. These are determined as PENDANT case vehicles manufactured from 1998 onwards. Consideration has been given to front seat occupants in car to car frontal and struck-side impacts where only a single impact occurred and there was no rollover within the crash. These scenarios replicate in some part, (though by no means entirely), the conditions for the European front and side impact directives. The sample sizes available for the analysis are relatively small and so the analysis is limited in its power and the ability to form robust conclusions. As an alternative, a comprehensive description of AIS 2+ injuries within the data is given together with case summaries. For frontal impacts, head, chest and lower extremity injuries are the most frequently occurring AIS 2+ injuries. The first two of these injury types (i.e. head and chest) are associated with mortality whilst lower extremity injuries can have long term consequences for survivors. Multiple head injuries are rare; multiple chest injuries are more common. Multiple lower extremity injuries to individual occupants is also common. For every body region, the majority of the injuries that are moderate or more serious occur at a Delta-V that is lower than the impact severity for the current Front Impact Directive. Of note are anecdotal cases where injury outcomes have varied according to restraint performance under similar conditions; issues relating to compatibility and cases where lower extremity fractures occur with little or no intrusion. For struck-side impacts the focus is upon head and chest injuries. Simple pelvis fractures are the most common AIS 2 injury in such crashes. For AIS 3+ injuries, those to the head, the chest and the legs are the most common within the data set. Multiple head injuries appear more common in struck-side impacts when compared to frontal impacts, though the sample size is small. Issues related to compatibility and injuries without relevant intrusion are raised through case reviews. (Author/publisher)
Abstract