Considerable attention has been focused on the sophisticated restraint and ejection protection of rigidly selected occupants of military aircraft and manned space vehicles. However, the vast majority of occupants of military and both civil transport and general aviation aircraft, as well as the occupants of over eight million new automotive vehicles per year, include a much wider range of sex, age, and physical capability. The means of protecting and yet accommodating this wide range of occupant population are restricted to less sophisticated types of restraint systems. The types and severity of injuries attributed to such systems as the lap belt, 3-point harness, single diagonal belt, and double-torso harness, as well as an experimental double-torso inverted-Y yoke with inertia reel and an air bag restraint system, have been assessed in this study. Sixty experiments were conducted with Savannah baboons (papio cynocephalus). Controlled experiments in a related series of studies considered a number of factors, including physical impact patterns typical of a commercial jet transport crash, the side-facing seat installation, and forward, rear, and side-facing light-aircraft and automotive impacts. One additional impact series investigated effects of seat belt restraint on pregnant maternal and fetal trauma. Both gross and microscopic examinations were conducted post- impact for acute trauma, and three cases of chronic survival injuries 30 days and 90 days post-impact are described. Trauma patterns distinctive of the various restraint systems are identified and described.
Samenvatting