Proposal of injury risk curves for evaluating pedestrian femur/pelvis injury risk using EEVC upper legform impactor based on accident reconstruction

Abstract

New injury risk curves for the evaluation of pedestrian femur and pelvic injury risk by means of the upper legform impactor of the European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee (EEVC) developed by the Transport Research Laboratory are proposed in this study. Lower extremity responses related to the risk of pedestrian femur and pelvic fractures caused by the bonnet leading edge and wing contact in a real-world pedestrian accident, such as impact force and bending moment, were reconstructed in the present study using the EEVC upper legform impactor. The femur and pelvic injury risk curves were developed from application of the model of Weibull cumulative frequency to measured impact force and bending moment. The newly developed injury risk curves indicated that an impact force of 6.3 kN and a bending moment of 417 Nm measured by the EEVC upper legform impactor correspond to a 0.2 probability of femur and pelvic fractures. The injury risk curves also showed that an impact force of 7.5 kN and a bending moment of 510 Nm measured by the EEVC upper legform impactor correspond to a 0.5 probability of injuries.