Head Injuries In Rollover of Military Armoured Vehicle

Abstract

Rollover crashes in vehicles are disproportionately more dangerous and posed a relatively higher risk of severe injuries and fatality rates compared to other configurations such as frontal and side crashes. To date, there is no study being conducted on injury outcomes of rollover accidents involving military armoured vehicles. This study was conducted to examine the driver’s response in rollover of SIBMAS 6X6 and with the aim to evaluate severity of head injury in the incident using finite element simulation. Hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy was incorporated to represent a driver and was thus configured to simulate a typical seated driving posture. Rollover intensity, in terms of initial kinetic energy, which capable of producing two quarter-turns of rolling with vehicle roof landing was imposed via initial angular velocity that applied to the whole vehicle. The dummy’s head was observed to make three significant impacts with hull interior structures from the initiation of rollover and until the roof landed on the ground. Head injury severity was evaluated based on resultant acceleration of head centre of gravity and also 15 ms duration Head Injury Criteria (HIC15). The maximum values of these two criteria were 531g and 9098g, respectively. Evaluation of these severity values with respect to the associated injury risks and also fatality rates as classified in Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) clearly indicated that the head injuries sustained by the driver were mostly fatal.