Child occupant injury risk in rear impact and frontal impact: effect of impact conditions and occupant related factors

Abstract

The rear-facing seat has become a potential seating configuration for the future autonomous vehicle, therefore the potential injury risk of a rear-facing occupant merits further investigation not only for adults, but also for children. The objectives of this study were to compare the child occupant injury risk on specific body regions in frontal and rear impact, and to investigate the effect of those crash conditions and occupant related factors on the occupant injury risk. Data from the NASS–CDS and CISS were studied for crashes during 2000–2019 involving model year 2000–2020 motor vehicles, including frontal and rear–end collision. The injury risk by specific body regions were compared by descriptive statistics. Logistic regression models were developed to examine the effects of various factors on injury risk, controlling for crash type (frontal impact and rear impact), vehicle impact speed, vehicle impact location, vehicle model year, and occupant gender, age, restraint use, and seating position. After controlling for the confounding factors, the children age 3–17 had higher injury risk than infant and toddler (age 0–2) (at MAIS 2+, OR 8.71, p < 0.001). The child occupant injury risk was higher in frontal impact than in rear impact (at MAIS 2+, OR 4.96, p < 0.001), especially for children age 3–17 with the exception of the MAIS 1+ neck/spine injury risk. This study provided child injury risk references for current vehicle which may provide insight to the potential injury risk of rear-facing child occupant in future vehicle configurations.