Pedestrian Impact Analysis of Side-Swipe and Minor Overlap Conditions

Abstract

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper presents analyses of 21real-world pedestrian versus vehicle collisions that were video recorded from vehicle dash mounted cameras or surveillance cameras. These pedestrian collisions have in common an impact configuration where the pedestrian was at the side of the vehicle, or with a minimal overlap at the front corner of the vehicle (less than one foot overlap). These impacts would not be considered frontal impacts [<span class="xref">1</span>], and as a result determining the speed of the vehicle by existing methods that incorporate the pedestrian travel distance post impact, or by assessing vehicle damage, would not be applicable. This research examined the specific interaction of non-frontal, side-impact, and minimal overlap pedestrian impact configurations to assess the relationship between the speed of the vehicle at impact, the motion of the pedestrian before and after impact, and the associated post impact travel distances. The21analyzed events are categorized according to the type of impact configuration (side-impact or minimal corner overlap). The vehicle speed was also determined from the video, and the relationship between the vehicle speed and pedestrian distance traveled post impact are summarized.</div></div>