The concept of risk of injury is introduced and used to illustrate a number crash scenarios. Injuries are shown to be a consequence of both risk and exposure. The separation of the injury risk and exposure curves by the reduction in injury risk for common conditions is seen as one goal of the vehicle safety engineer. Single point testing is compared with a population approach and the scenario of good performance in a crash test and poor performance overall is illustrated. Both high and lower speed testing is recommended to control injury risks across the collision severity spectrum. Higher speed crash testing has the potential to reduce intrusion related injuries considerably in frontal crashes with the possibility of these being partially offset by an increase in lower speed acceleration injuries. Real-world crash injury data is evaluated to quantify injury risks. Fatal injuries are shown to be sustained with a median Energy Equivalent Speed (EES) of 70 km/h and substantial reductions are not anticipated following the 1998 Front Impact Directive. A range of other factors contributing to injury severity in real-world crash victims is identified. Finally, measurement of injury risk curves of current car models is suggested as a method to further develop the practical application of injury risk management. (A)
Abstract