The work reported here is intended to aid in the design of an advanced anthropomorphic test device by indicating the body regions in which the most serious occupant injuries are incurred. For this purpose, an analysis was carried out on the 1980 and 1981 data files from the National Accident Sampling System (NASS). It was decided that a more sensitive and convenient scale than the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) alone was required to weight the various injuries. A new weighting factor, termed Injury Priority Rating (IPR)., was therefore calculated and applied. This factor took into account both the expected net production (i. e., earnings) of a person over his or her lifetime and that person's expectation of survival to each subsequent age had he or she not been injured in an accident. The resulting dollar amounts were combined with a percent impairment that was derived from the likely consequences of injury as coded by two panels of physicians. The analysis using IPR found that injuries to the combination of the head, face, and neck stood out as having the most serious consequences for the front occupants of passenger cars. Direct frontal collisions at a 12 o'clock +15' direction of force accounted for over a third of IPR to front occupants, while just over a sixth was accounted for by collisions with non-horizontal directions of force. (Author/publisher)
Abstract