Accident data issues from the TRACE perspective

Accident data issues from the TRACE perspectiv

Side airbag deployments in the UK - initial case reviews

As in-vehicle safety technology becomes more prevalent, the corresponding fitment of side airbags in the United Kingdom is now more commonplace. This study adds to the body of knowledge on real world impacts by presenting initial cases of deployment from the UK, including examples where there is some suggestion that side airbag deployment may have contributed to injury outcomes. With the introduction of new restraint devices into the vehicle fleet, manufacturers and engineers are not only eager to quantify their benefit and injury mitigation effectiveness but to also consider the performance and application in the real world. Whilst there are presently insufficient numbers of cases to fully evaluate injury benefit in side impacts, individual case evaluations can provide an initial assessment of side airbag field performance. In this study, data from 47 crashes in which the side airbag deployed were available for analysis. Of these, 19 occupants sustained a MAIS ≥ 2 injury. Case reviews have identified 2 occupants where serious (AIS 3) thoracic injuries may have occurred through interaction with the deploying side airbag and a further case involving upper extremity fracture (AIS 3) was also thought to have been associated with side airbag deployment. In these 3 cases, crash severity and compartmental deformation were not considered to be extensive. However in the majority of cases, side airbag deployment did not cause injury to the occupant and a general overview of these cases is given

Report on Accident Analysis, Deliverable 3.2.3 of the EC FP7 Project CASPER (2012)

This document reports on work undertaken in subtasks 3.2.2 (Focussed accident data collection) and 3.2.4 (Data analysis and reporting) of the EC CASPER (Child Advanced Safety Project for European Roads) project. There are two main objectives, to describe the information available from the road accident data collection activity of the CASPER project and its predecessors, CREST and CHILD, and to provide an analysis of the child accident data – within the constraints of the case selection criteria used. This work would not be possible without the contributions made to the road accident database by the participants in all three EC projects (CREST, CHILD and CASPER) – the data collection teams and sponsors of the data collection activities

Are crash characteristics and causation mechanisms similar in crashes involving fatigue to those involving alcohol?

The effect of fatigue on driving has been compared to the effect of alcohol impairment in both driver performance and crash studies. However are crash characteristics and causation mechanisms similar in crashes involving fatigue to those involving alcohol when studied in the real world? This has been explored by examining data held in the EC project SafetyNet Accident Causation Database. Causation data was recorded using the SafetyNet Accident Causation System (SNACS). The focus was on Cars/MPV crashes and drivers assigned the SNACS code Alcohol or Fatigue. The Alcohol group included 44 drivers and the Fatigue group included 47. ‘Incorrect direction’ was a frequently occurring critical event in both the Alcohol and Fatigue groups. The Alcohol group had more contributory factors related to decision making and the Fatigue group had more contributory factors relating to incorrect observations. This analysis does not allow for generalised statements about the significance of the similarities and differences between crashes involving alcohol and fatigue, however the observed differences do suggest that attempts to quantify the effect of fatigue by using levels of alcohol impairment as a benchmark should be done with care

An Evaluation of airbag benefits/disbenefits in European vehicles - a combined statistical and case study

Any restraint system carries a certain risk of injury from the system itself. It is therefore vital to know the balance of that risk compared to the overall benefits of the system. The objectives of this study were to address those questions by a thorough case review of in-depth real world cases to find problems associated with airbag deployment followed by examining the nature, frequency and mechanisms of AIS ≥ 2 head/face and chest injuries in European vehicles, with and without airbags. Belted and unbelted drivers were examined separately. The analysis considered only frontal impacts.Any restraint system carries a certain risk of injury from the system itself. It is therefore vital to know the balance of that risk compared to the overall benefits of the system. The objectives of this study were to address those questions by a thorough case review of in-depth real world cases to find problems associated with airbag deployment followed by examining the nature, frequency and mechanisms of AIS ≥ 2 head/face and chest injuries in European vehicles, with and without airbags. Belted and unbelted drivers were examined separately. The analysis considered only frontal impacts

Investigation of the protection of children in minibuses and coaches

The draft European Directive on the use of seatbelts requires passengers of minibuses and coaches to use the safety systems (seatbelts) provided. As the wording stands, this requirement applies to children over 3 years, but the need for additional protection is not clear. This need has long been recognised in cars where the requirements for protection vary according to the size of child and the characteristics of both the vehicle and the crash. However, this knowledge base does not adequately address what means of protection children need in minibuses, buses and coaches. Research has been commissioned by the UK Department for Transport to determine the requirements for seatbelts and restraint systems in minibuses and coaches in relation to children. Information is being gathered about exposure, accidents, operational issues of use, practicality and liability and the fit of existing seatbelt systems for different age groups of children and particularly those under 3 years

Passenger casualties in non-collision incidents on buses and coaches in Great Britain

Of all the killed or seriously injured (KSI) passengers on buses or coaches in Great Britain, a surprisingly high proportion, 64.3%, are injured in non-collision incidents. A KSI casualty distribution of this sub-sample identifies that 74.2% of the casualties are female and a large proportion, 58.0%, are elderly casualties 60 years of age or over

Child car passenger fatalities – European figures and in-depth study

This paper reports on three approaches undertaken to study overall child car passenger fatality numbers across Europe and examine conditions when fatalities occur. Firstly, a literature review of previous specific studies and public data finds data from WHO for estimating the relevance of child road accident fatalities. Detail for child fatalities as car passengers is found to be limited and for the future it is important to collect and harmonise exposure data (especially distance travelled) to compare countries and different modes of traffic for their fatality risk. Secondly, interrogation of the EC CARE database (Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe) for child car passenger fatalities finds that 392 children (0 to 13 years) were killed as car (or taxi) passengers in 23 countries of the EU during 2008, 44% of all road fatalities for this age group. Over the previous 10 year period the reduction in child car passenger fatalities is estimated to be 50% for the EU-19 countries with available data. Thirdly, in depth analysis of French police child passenger fatality files has taken place. The CASIMIR project (Child Accident Study Investigating Mortal Incident on the Road), the collation and in-depth analysis of French police child passenger fatality files from 2001 to 2003, was reported at FISITA 2010. An update of this study with data from 2005 to 2010 is on-going, in order to see if there are some evolutions (for example, new child restraint systems, new generation of cars and changes in parents’ behaviour) and more than 250 fatal accidents will be included in the 2nd phase. From previous results, frontal and side impacts remain a priority, with a small proportion killed in rear impacts and fatalities in roll-overs mostly unrestrained. In this kind of study there are some limits on the information regarding the quality of use of the restraint systems. Therefore a sample of 60 accidents was investigated in-depth (mostly front and side impacts) with special attention paid to the quality of restraint use. Results of these in depth investigations are reported in the present paper. The complete data of the 2nd phase of the CASIMIR project, also considering sociological data, will be published when all fatal accidents for the period have been coded. Parts of this work have been undertaken in the EC CASPER project and are reported in Deliverable 3.2.1 (Kirk et al, 2011). The activities regarding the French police fatal files have been undertaken in both the CASIMIR project and CASPER

Effectiveness of airbag restraints in frontal crashes - what European field studies tell us

UK and German field accident data show that European airbag systems provide a 35% and 56% reduction in AIS 2+ injury to the cranium and face when belted drivers sustain MAIS 2+ injury in frontal crashes. The highest benefits of airbags were seen in crashes exceeding 30 km/h delta v. Airbags do not appear to affect a reduction in chest injuries and they exert a neutral influence on the incidence of cervical spine strain. Drivers with deployed airbags sustained proportionately more AIS 2+ upper limb injuries than those in vehicles without airbags. That difference was largely the result of a higher proportion of clavicle fractures. Overall, deployment thresholds correlate well to the onset of moderate/serious head injury but there appear to be some unnecessary deployments at low crash severities

Head and chest injury outcomes in struck side crashes

This study examines injury outcomes for front seat passengers of European passenger cars in struck-side crashes. The UK National Accident Database (STATS 19) and UK In-depth Accident Database (CCIS) were analysed to determine how injury outcomes have changed between two distinct sets of vehicles; older cars manufactured pre 1993 and newer cars manufactured post 1998. Overall trends in injury outcome are reported with comparisons made to outcomes in frontal and non struck-side impact crashes. More detailed results relating specifically to head and chest injury outcome are given. Additionally an assessment of the performance of side airbags is made. In general, improvements in the killed and seriously injured (KSI) rates for struck-side occupants are observed in newer cars compared with older vehicles and when fatalities are considered the greatest improvement is seen in the reduction of mAIS (i.e. highest AIS injury) 4+ chest injuries. However, when side airbags are considered, the rate of serious chest injury is higher in the sample of cars with side airbag deployment (25.0%) than the sample of cars with no side airbag deployment (10.2%). Of these serious chest injuries the rate of multiple rib fracture on the struck-side is almost double in cases where a side airbag has deployed compared with when no side airbag has deployed. Regulation seems to have been effective in reducing the rate of KSI injury outcome in struck-side crashes with slight benefits in terms of head injury mitigation and more apparent benefits in terms of chest injury mitigation. There are however some preliminary contrary indications regarding the benefits of the side airbag which may indicate a problem with out-of-position occupants