Neck injuries in frontal impacts: influence of crash pulse characteristicson injury risk

AIS1 neck injuries are the most frequent disabling injuries among car occup ants in road traffic accidents. Although neck injury is mostly regarded as resulting from rear end collisions, almost one third of all neck injuries o ccur in frontal impacts. The injury mechanisms in both rear-end and frontal impacts are still not known, although different hypotheses exist. Since 19 92, approx. 100 000 vehicles on the Swedish market have been equipped with crash recorders to measuring frontal impacts. This paper analyses the influ ence of different characteristics derived from the acceleration time histor y on the risk of short- and long-term disability to the neck in frontal imp acts. The study includes injury outcomes from 187 restrained front seat occ upants in 143 frontal collisions with an overlap exceeding 25%, where the c rash pulses have been recorded using crash pulse recorders. The results sho w that the shape of the crash pulse influences the risk of long-term disabi lity to the neck. The vehicle accelerations in the mid and last third of th e crash pulse seem to be important. It is also shown how change of velocity and mean and peak accelerations influence the neck-injury risk. It is sugg ested that the risk of sustaining an AIS1 neck injury in frontal impacts co uld be reduced by using more effective pretensioners and more advanced belt -load limiters. These results may also have implications for neck injury me chanisms in rear-end impacts. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.