Some characteristics of the population who suffer trauma as pedestrians when hit by cars and some resulting implications.

Pedestrian casualties represent a particularly heterogeneous population in terms of their biomechanical characteristics. Age and sex are two measurable parameters which relate to this variation, whilst the circumstances of the accident control the frequency and severity of exposure to certain types of trauma. This paper looks at some of the dominant accident variables. These are the pedestrian's age and stature, the car impact speed and some of the detailed geometrical and physical characteristics of the car exterior. The great importance of leg fractures and head injuries is illustrated and some of the consequences for design are discussed in terms of realistic and appropriate test procedures. (a) for the covering abstract of the conference see irrd abstract no 243434.