Abstract
Cervical spine injuries are a major concern for motorcyclists in traffic accidents and racing competitions. Neck braces aim to prevent cervical spine injuries during accidents by reducing the neck range of motion, and keeping it under physiological limits. This work aims to evaluate the ability of neck braces to reduce neck mobility for two driving postures associated with PTW configurations. The neck mobility of twelve volunteer subjects testing four neck braces on two powered two-wheelers (scooter and racing motorbike) is measured using an optoelectronic motion capture system. With the tested neck braces worn, neck mobility is significantly reduced as compared to the physiological range of motion in all degrees of freedom. However, only flexion/extension is reduced by all neck braces tested. This suggests that these brace designs do not provide protection against all the cervical spine loading directions that may occur in a trauma. Furthermore, specific type of each powered two-wheeler considered significantly affects the neck mobility in axial rotation, as well as the postero-anterior and caudo-cranial translations, thus underscoring the need to consider the driving posture when evaluating neck brace devices.
Highlights
Motorcyclists are generally highly vulnerable drivers, who are largely exposed to fatal injuries
This work provides a novel understanding of the capacity of the neck brace to reduce, in quasi-static loading conditions, the neck mobility and keep it under its physiological range of motion, depending on the driving postures associated with the Powered Two-Wheeler (PTW) type
This work aimed to evaluate the ability of neck braces to reduce neck mobility and to keep it under the physiological range of motion, depending on driving postures induced by different PTWs
Summary
Motorcyclists are generally highly vulnerable drivers, who are largely exposed to fatal injuries. A significant proportion of Powered Two-Wheeler (PTW) accidents involve cervical spine injuries, which can lead to serious long-term motor deficiencies, and produce the highest rates (27%) of neurological deficiencies for motorcyclists [4]. Cervical spine injuries are directly related to multi-directional mechanical loading involved during trauma [6,7,8,9,10]. Among motorcyclists, these injuries are mainly caused by a direct impact on the helmeted head during an accident [11], leading to combined rotational movements greater than the physiological ranges of motion of the cervical spine. Several methods based on different measuring devices [12,13,14,15,16,17,18] are used to study the physiological mobility of the human head and neck in rotation in an attempt to assess the Promet – Traffic&Transportation, Vol 33, 2021, No 3, 337-345
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