• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2009

One of the most important factors that affect a person's risk of injury in a motor vehicle crash is the age of the person. This study investigates the characteristics of crash injuries among young, middle-aged and older drivers and occupants. Based on the comprehensive claim data from automobile insurance from 2000 to 2007, this study examines in great detail the drivers and occupants injury body regions and severity by age in car-to-car frontal crashes. It has been shown that elderly drivers and occupants suffer more injuries at a chest region compared to the middle-aged group. This research calls attention to the need for design to make vehicles more protective for older drivers in car-to car frontal crashes.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 1992

A possible adverse effect on the likelihood of front-seat occupant fatalities from unbelted rear-seat occupants in frontal crashes is investigated using Fatal Accident Reporting System data. Passenger cars which sustained frontal damage and which did not roll over are included in this analysis. Of the frontally damaged cars, only cars containing a driver and a right-front passenger are selected. Then, from these cars, the following three cases are considered: a) left-rear occupant present, b) right-rear occupant present, and c) no one else in the car. Cars belonging to a) or b) contain only three occupants, and those belonging to the last case contain only two occupants. In addition, all occupants are unbelted. To estimate the influence of rear-seat occupants on front-seat occupant fatalities, relative risks of driver and right-front passenger fatalities are compared pairwise across these three cases. The adverse influence of unbelted rear-seat occupants on the likelihood of unbelted front-seat occupant fatalities in frontal crashes is estimated to be 7.9% ${\pm}$ 45%(the error limits indicate one standard error). In other words, front-seat occupant fatalities are increased 7.9% in frontal crashes due to the loadings from unbelted rear-seat occupants. This suggests that the usage of safety belts by rear-seat occupants not only may extend their own lives but also helps in reducing the fatalities of front-seat occupants seated in front of them.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 1994

Based on Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data, safety belt effect- tiveness in preventing fatalities is investigated for the following five types of crashes: frontal, left, rear, right, and rollover. Passenger cars containing two occupants, a driver and a right front passenger, are included in this analysis. For each crash type, these cars containing the two occupants are classified into four categories according to the safety belt usage categories for the two front seat occupants, namely, both belted, both unbelted, and either one was belted but not both. Relative risks of driver and right front passenger fatalities are compared among these four cases. For each crash type, two independent estimates of safety belt effectiveness are obtained for drivers and for right front passengers. The weighted average of the two estimates is calculated for drivers and for right front passengers for the five crash types. Using FARS data starting 1978 throught 1983, safety belts are more effective in rollover accidents than in frontal collisions. In rollover accidents, safety belt effectiveness estimate for drivers is $68%{\pm} 6% $ and that for right front passengers is $71%{\pm}6% $ , in which the error limits indicate one standard error. Sfety belt effectiveness estimates for drivers and right front passengers involved in frontal collisions are $41%{\pm} 9% $ and $37%{\pm} 10% $ , respectively. For left and right sided collisions and for both drivers and right-front-passengers, none of the four estimates are significantly different from 0%, statistically : however, when left and right sided collisions are combined with far sided occupants(drivers involved in right sided collisions and right front passengers involved in left sided collisions) safety belt effectiveness is significant, $38%{\pm} 12% $ . For rear collisions, the estimate for drivers shows statistically significant positive effect, $60%{\pm}23% $ . while for right-front-passengers the estimate is not significantly different from 0%. These results show that a safety belt is an effective restraint system not only in frontal crashes but also in a variety of crashes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.12-19
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• 2011

Real-world accident cases were investigated to understand injury characteristics of the elderly driver. A total 10 cases of car-to-car frontal crash accidents from passenger car including SUV claimed to domestic car insurance company were reviewed. The injury characteristics of the elderly were analyzed from personal information (gender, age), medical treatment record (medical certificate, curative days), vehicle information (model, air-bag, seatbelt) and damage information. This study showed that elderly driver has higher possibility of thorax injury than non-elderly's. Moreover, Injury type and severity were more severe than non-elderly driver at similar type accident conditions. Also, elderly driver's medical treatment period needs 3 times more than non-elderly driver's.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.7-12
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• 2018

Injury mechanisms of lower extremity injuries in motor vehicle accidents are focused on fractures, sprains, and contusions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the analysis of lower extremity injury mechanism in occupant motor vehicle accident by using Hospital Information System (HIS) and reconstruction program, based on the materials related to motor vehicle accidents. Among patients who visited the emergency department of Wonju Severance Christian Hospital due to motor vehicle accidents from August 2012 to February 2014, we collected data on patients with agreement for taking the damaged vehicle's photos. After obtaining the verbal consent from the patient, we asked about the cause of the accident, information on vehicle involved in the accident, and the location of car repair shop. The photos of the damaged vehicle were taken on the basis of front, rear, left side and right side. Damage to the vehicle was presented using the CDC code by analytical study of photo-images of the damaged vehicle, and a trauma score was used for medical examination of the severity of the patient's injury. Among the 1,699 patients due to motor vehicle crashes, 88 (5.2%) received a diagnosis of lower extremity fracture and 141 (8.3%) were the severe who had ISS over 15. Nevertheless during 19 months for research, it was difficult to build up in-depth database about motor vehicle crashes. It has a limitation on collecting data because not only the system for constructing database about motor vehicle crash is not organized but also the process for demanding materials is not available due to prevention of personal information. For accurate analysis of the relationship between occupant injury and vehicle damage in motor vehicle crashes, build-up of an in-depth database through carrying out various policies for motor vehicle crashes is necessary for sure.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.530-537
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• 2016

This study investigates frontal crashes, analyzes the driver's action related to the change of the collision direction and determines the severity of (bodily injury). This study was conducted from August, 2013, to January, 2014, and the data for the car damage and human body damage were collected by emergency medical teams. In terms of data collection, we collected the accident vehicle, crash direction, body damage, etc., based on the Korea In-depth Accident Study (KIDAS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS). We used Minitab 17 and SPSS 22.0 to do the frequency analysis and ANOVA. In the analysis results, the prevalence of frontal collisions was 55.8% and mostly occurred in the 12 o'clock direction. In the analysis of the frontal crash direction according to age, the average ages for the 11, 12 and 1 o'clock directions were $46.46{\pm}13.47$, $44.43{\pm}13.40$ and $52.46{\pm}12.04$, respectively, so the older age drivers had a high probability of the accident occurring in the 1 o'clock direction. In the analysis of men's frontal collision direction according to age, the average ages in the 11, 12 and 1 o'clock directions were $47.10{\pm}13.88$, $45.24{\pm}13.78$ and $55.73{\pm}13.38$, respectively, so older aged men had a high probability of having collisions in the 1 o'clock direction. However, the statistical analysis of the frontal crash direction according to age in women didn't show any meaningful trend. When comparing the ISS according to age of the men and women in the collision direction, the men were less likely to have a 12 o'clock collision when $ISS{\geq}9$ and more likely to have a 1 o'clock collision when ISS<9. As a result, frontal crashes are more likely to occur in the 12 o'clock direction and the ISS decreases because the likelihood of frontal crashes in the 1 o'clock direction increases with increasing age. Therefore, when men recognize that they are heading for a 12 o'clock direction collision, they try to steer to the left to reduce the body damage.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2004

The majority of real world frontal collisions involves partial overlap (offset) collision, in which only one of the two longitudinal members is used for energy absorption. This leads to dangerous intrusions of the passenger compartment. Excessive intrusion is usually generated on the impacted side causing higher contact injury risk on the occupants compared with full frontal collision. The ideal structure needs to have extendable length when the front-end structure is not capable to absorb crash energy without violating deceleration pulse requirements. A smart structure has been proposed to meet this ideal requirement. The proposed front-end structure consists of two hydraulic cylinders integrated with the front-end longitudinal members of standard vehicles. The work carried out in this paper includes developing and analyzing mathematical models of two different cases representing vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-barrier in full and offset collisions. By numerical crash simulations, this idea has been evaluated and optimized. It is proven form numerical simulations that the smart structures bring significantly lower intrusions and decelerations. In addition, it is shown that the mathematical models are valid, flexible, and can be used in an effective way to give a quick insight of real life crashes.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.491-499
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• 2005

There are different types of vehicle impacts recorded every year, resulting in many injuries and fatalities. The severity of these impacts depends on the aggressivety and incompatibility of vehicle-to-roadside hardware impacts. The aim of this paper is to investigate and to enhance crashworthiness in the case of full barrier impact using a new idea of crash improvement. Two different types of smart structures have been proposed to support the function of the existing vehicle. The work carried out in this paper includes developing and analyzing mathematical models of vehicle-to-barrier impact for the two types of smart structures. It is proven from analytical analysis that the mathematical models can be used in an effective way to give a quick insight of real life crashes. Moreover, it is shown that these models are valid and flexible, and can be useful in optimization studies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.145-154
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• 2003

Occupant simulation models have been used to study trends or specific design changes in several typical crash situations. The ATB, Articulated Total Body, was developed and used to predict gross human body responses to vehicle crashes and pilot ejections. Since the ATB source code is open to public, the user can add their own defined modules and functions. The introduction of seat belts into cars significantly decreased the injury risk of passengers in frontal impacts. In this paper, a new seat belt model was developed and implemented into the ATB. For this purpose, a subroutine of the new seat belt was constructed. A force-deflection function was added to replace an existing function to consider energy absorption. The function includes hysteresis effects of the experiment data of the loading and unloading parts of the seat belt load-extension curve. Moreover, this belt model considers a slip between ellipsoid and belt segments. This paper attempted to validate the ATB program which includes the subroutine of new belt models comparing with the real car frontal crash experiments and MADYMO frontal models. The analysis focusses on the human movement and body accelerations.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.11 s.242
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• pp.1518-1526
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• 2005

With increasing need of transportation services for people with disabilities and the aged, wheelchairs are used as their assistive devices to participate in daily and recreational activities and as seats of motor vehicle. However, as wheelchairs are primarily designed fer mobility assistive devices, not for vehicle seats, wheelchair users may experience serious injury when they meet car crashes. To date, neither engineering guidance for a wheelchair mounting system on the vehicle floor nor safety assessment analysis by a car crash has been studied for the domestic users. In this paper, in accordance with the ANSVRESNA WC-19, a fixed vehicle mounted wheelchair occupant restraint system (FWORS), wheelchair integrated restraint system (WIRS), and wheelchair integrated x-bend restraint system (WIXRS) subjected to frontal impact (20 g, 48 U) were analyzed using compute. simulations for domestic users. We present surrogate wheelchair occupant safety by head injury criteria (HIC), motion criteria (MC), and combined injury criteria (CIC).