Injury pattern and parameters to assess severity for occupants involved in car- to- car lateral impacts.

The description of real- world lateral impacts presented here gives a distribution of injury severity by position occupied in relation to the crush area for 1189 occupants involved in car- to- car collisions. The levels of risk incurred by front- seat occupants are examined in relation with the wearing of seatbelts and the speed of impacted vehicles. The characteristics of the deformations observed on the one hand, and the relationship between the parameters for impact severity and injury severity are analysed.