Front Seat Passengers Research Articles

Clinical development of ileofemoral thrombosis caused by malposition of the ileosacral screw

Introduction Treatment of unstable injuries of the pelvic bones is one of the unsolved problems in modern traumatology. The instability of the injuries is determined by the nature of the destruction of the posterior semi-ring of the pelvis. The most used technique for osteosynthesis of sacral fractures for unstable pelvic injuries is ileosacral screw fixation.The purpose of the work was to demonstrate a clinical case of an iatrogenic complication: ileofemoral thrombosis caused by compression of the internal iliac vein due to malposition of the ileosacral screw.Materials and methods Medical records of a 34-year-old patient injured in a traffic accident (front seat passenger) were studied, who was referred from a district hospital on the fourth day after the injury diagnosed with a fracture of the transverse process of L2 vertebra on the left, closed fracture of the pubic and ischial bones on the left, fracture of the lateral mass of the sacrum on the right. Alcohol intoxication. Traumatic shock stage 1. Treatment results were monitored throughout the inpatient and outpatient treatment periods. Long-term follow-up was 6 months.Results Timely suspicion of the complication based on physical examination data with CT angiography that assisted to exclude internal bleeding and urgently carry out repeated surgical intervention to correct the implant malposition, reosteosynthesis of S1 body without loss of reduction, to achieve regression of the clinical picture of ileofemoral thrombosis, and also to mobilize the patient in the shortest possible time. During inpatient treatment, regression of the symptoms of the complication was achieved, the patient was fully activated, and was discharged for outpatient follow-ups.Discussion Variability in the anatomy of the sacrum and the characteristics of fractures hinder the navigation while inserting iliosacral screws, which in some cases result in malposition. Compression of the common iliac vein without damaging it causes difficulty in blood outflow and the development of a clinical picture of ileofemoral thrombosis in the early postoperative period.Conclusion This clinical case shows that X-ray images in standard views are not a reliable method for diagnosing sacral injuries and are not sufficient for preoperative planning. The use of standard C-arm did not provide sufficient intraoperative visualization to correctly assess the position of the iliosacral screw, especially in cases with sacral dysmorphia. The 3D volumetric image reconstruction significantly influenced the correct perception of the anatomical structure of the bony structures of the pelvis. Malposition of the screw and its exit to the anterior surface of the sacrum caused disruption of the iliac vein outflow and development of thrombosis in the early postoperative period.

Does using a bioptic telescope improve visual recognition of the on-road environment?

Individuals with reduced visual acuity (VA) may drive with bioptic telescopes in some jurisdictions. The effect of bioptic telescope use on on-road recognition distances is important for driving safety, as increased recognition distances increase the time available to react to road signs or driving events. This study aimed to investigate the impact of bioptic telescope use on visual recognition of road signs, traffic lights, and hazards in an on-road driving environment in individuals with reduced VA. Ten individuals (mean ± standard deviation age, 39.1 ± 19.1 years) with reduced VA (trained to use bioptic telescopes) participated in a repeated-measures on-road experiment for two viewing conditions, with and without a bioptic telescope (randomized order). Participants underwent a clinical low vision assessment, including high-contrast VA with and without the bioptic telescope aligned, visual fields, and contrast sensitivity testing. For the driving component, participants seated in the front passenger seat of a moving car reported all road signs, traffic lights, and hazards (unpredictable road events that represent a risk to driving safety including other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians) seen along a route that included suburban roads and highways. Video cameras captured participants' viewing behavior, verbal commentary, and the distance at which three pre-selected road signs were reported. In the eye with the bioptic telescope, high-contrast VA improved from 0.75 ± 0.17 (without) to 0.25 ± 0.1 logMAR with the bioptic telescope. Bioptic telescope use did not affect the percentage of road signs, traffic lights, or hazards correctly recognized but did result in 2.6 times longer recognition distances (49 ± 23 vs. 19 ± 11 m, t9 = 5.02, p<0.001). Road signs were recognized at significantly longer distances when using a bioptic telescope, confirming their positive impact on timely visual recognition of objects within the driving scene. Future work should explore whether this effect generalizes to individuals using bioptic telescopes when driving a vehicle.

Does abdominal protrusion in pregnant women affect abdominal injury severity in motor vehicle collisions? A nationwide database study.

Some pregnant women avoid vehicle driving owing to the risk of contact between their protruding abdomen and steering wheel. This study was performed to determine whether abdominal protrusion in late-term pregnant car users affects the occurrence and severity of abdominal injuries in motor vehicle collisions using a national crash database. The National Automotive Sampling System/Crashworthiness Data System was used to analyse maternal background, collision characteristics, outcome and Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores for the body regions of all persons involved in the collision. Comparison of pregnant and non-pregnant women in the driver's seat showed no significant differences in the rate of AIS scores of ≥2 (2+) for abdominal injuries and female outcomes. Comparison of use of the driver's seat and front passenger's seat by pregnant women showed no significant difference in rate of AIS 2+ injuries or in maternal and fetal outcomes. Comparison of pregnant women with a gestational age of ≤27 and >27 weeks in the driver's seat showed no significant differences in rate of AIS 2+ injuries or in maternal and fetal outcomes. Based on the data from relatively low-speed frontal collisions, obstetrician/gynaecologists should advise pregnant women that they do not need to change their preferred car seat from the driver's seat to another seat because of fear of contact between their protruding abdomen and the vehicle interior.

RFDrive: Tagged Human-Vehicle Interaction for All

Human–vehicle interaction is an important factor for safe driving. The driver needs to interact with the in-vehicle steering wheel and infotainment system properly during driving. Specifically, driving guidelines require the driver to hold the steering wheel at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Moreover, the in-vehicle infotainment system should be more adaptive for the driver and front-seat passenger during driving (i.e., the in-vehicle infotainment system should be part and even fully disabled for the driver, whereas the front-seat passenger should be able to enjoy the full in-vehicle infotainment system). However, affordable vehicles are usually designed to achieve basic driving functions without considering safe human–vehicle interactions, which require an add-on, affordable, and ready-to-use human–vehicle interaction monitoring system. In this article, we present RFDrive, a system that can simultaneously locate the driver’s hand positions on the steering wheel and automate in-vehicle infotainment system touch discrimination for safe driving using commodity passive RFID tags. Since these commodity passive RFID tags are low cost (i.e., around 5 cents per tag), battery free, and are small, like a sticker, our design will enable not only safe driving but is also low cost, which can lead to sustainable solutions. To do so, we attach RFID tags on the steering wheel for the driver’s hand position location and attach RFID tags on the roof of the vehicle’s interior for in-vehicle infotainment system touch discrimination (i.e., differentiating the driver’s infotainment system touch and front-seat passenger’s infotainment system touch). However, the wheel steering will distort the wireless channel-based driver’s hand position location on the steering wheel. Thus, we propose a novel tag ID-based algorithm to locate the driver’s hand position on the steering wheel by harnessing the human body as part of the RFID tag’s antenna. Since the in-vehicle infotainment system touch from the driver or front-seat passenger will affect different RFID tags attached to the roof of the vehicle’s interior, we propose to use the differential amplitude of backscattered signals from all the tags to discriminate in-vehicle infotainment system touch sources. Our experiments show that RFDrive can achieve the average accuracy of 0.98 and 0.98 for in-vehicle touch source discrimination and driver’s hand position location, respectively.

Child face detection on front passenger seat through deep learning

Objective One of the main causes of death worldwide among young people are car crashes, and most of these fatalities occur to children who are seated in the front passenger seat and who, at the time of an accident, receive a direct impact from the airbags, which is lethal for children under 13 years of age. The present study seeks to raise awareness of this risk by interior monitoring with a child face detection system that serves to alert the driver that the child should not be sitting in the front passenger seat. Methods The system incorporates processing of data collected, elements of deep learning such as transfer learning, fine-tunning and facial detection to identify the presence of children in a robust way, which was achieved by training with a dataset generated from scratch for this specific purpose. The MobileNetV2 architecture was used based on the good performance shown when compared with the Inception architecture for this task; and its low computational cost, which facilitates implementing the final model on a Raspberry Pi 4B. Results The resulting image dataset consisted of 102 empty seats, 71 children (0-13 years), and 96 adults (14-75 years). From the data augmentation, there were 2,496 images for adults and 2,310 for children. The classification of faces without sliding window gave a result of 98% accuracy and 100% precision. Finally, using the proposed methodology, it was possible to detect children in the front passenger seat in real time, with a delay of 1 s per decision and sliding window criterion, reaching an accuracy of 100%. Conclusions Although our 100% accuracy in an experimental environment is somewhat idealized in that the sensor was not blocked by direct sunlight, nor was it partially or completely covered by dirt or other debris common in vehicles transporting children. The present study showed that is possible the implementation of a robust noninvasive classification system made on Raspberry Pi 4 Model B in any automobile for the detection of a child in the front seat through deep learning methods such as Deep CNN.

Prediction of rear-seat belt use: Application of extended theory of planned behavior

Objectives Rear-seat belts have been shown to significantly reduce the severity of road vehicle collisions and fatalities. However, their use by rear-seat passengers is significantly less than that by front-seat passengers. Thus, the psychological factors underlying individuals’ decision to wear a seat belt in the rear seat require further investigation. Methods An extended theory of planned behavior (eTPB) was used to examine individuals’ behavior of wearing a rear-seat belt. An online survey was conducted and a total of 515 valid questionnaires were collected in China. Results While attitude, descriptive norms, and law enforcement all have a significant effect on individuals’ intention to wear a seat belt in the rear, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control do not. Individuals’ attitudes toward wearing a seat belt in the rear seat are significantly influenced by law enforcement and behavioral intention, but not by perceived behavioral control. The mediation effect analysis reveals that law enforcement has the greatest overall effect on behavior, followed by attitude and descriptive norms. Conclusions The results of this paper contribute to more effective recommendations to improve the use of rear seat belts and to safeguard rear seat passengers.

IJCM_246A: Estimating the prevalence of seat belt usage in motor cars: A descriptive cross-sectional study in Mangalore

Background: Every year 1.25 million people die of road traffic accidents. Several safety measures can be taken to prevent RTAs. The SDG 2030 set the target to halve the number of global death and injuries from road traffic accidents by the year 2020. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of seat belt use and factors influencing it including driver characteristics, type of car and time of day and distractions while driving. Methodology: This Descriptive cross-sectional study was set on the major roads and intersections of Mangalore, recruiting the drivers and front-seat passengers in the motor cars at the time and site of observation. Results: A total of 6165 motor cars were observed. 15 (0.2%) of these cars had completely tinted car windows, therefore out of the total, 6150 motor cars could be properly observed. 70.91% (4361) of drivers were wearing seat belts. Seat belt usage among drivers was found to be higher on highways (76.6%) as compared to on residential and city roads (69.3%). In vicinity of traffic police, 76.5% of drivers were observed to be wearing seat belts in contrary only 67.8% of them were wearing seatbelts in the absence of traffic police. Prevalence of mobile phone use and other distractions amongst drivers was 2.1%. Out of 2646 adult front seat passengers observed, only 10.9% were wearing seat belts. Conclusion: Among drivers, type of motor car, traffic zone and type of road and presence of traffic police in vicinity are significantly associated factors with seatbelt usage. Among adult front seat passengers, type of motor car, traffic zone, type of road and presence of traffic police in vicinity are significantly associated. Among front seat child passengers, type of road and traffic zone are significantly associated with seat belt usage.

Prediction of Rear-Seat-Belt Use among Older Adults

The efficacy of rear seat belts in safeguarding both rear- and front-seat passengers is well established; however, the use of rear seat belts in China remains suboptimal. Furthermore, automotive transportation holds significant importance for seniors in China. Consequently, it is necessary to analyze the factors affecting intention to use rear seat belts among Chinese seniors. This study applies the hierarchical regression model to investigate the effects of sociodemographic characteristics and constructs on older adults’ backseat seat-belt use intentions. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Pingdingshan City and 551 valid questionnaires were obtained. Results show that sociodemographic characteristics exhibit a limited influence on the intention to use rear seat belts, accounting for only 16.7% of the variance in intention. However, the incorporation of additional constructs can substantially augment the model’s explanatory capacity. After incorporating the exogenous constructs of the theory of planned behavior, the model’s explanatory power for behavioral intention increased to 46.9%. Subsequently, on the inclusion of susceptibility, severity, perceived benefit, and perceived law enforcement as additional factors, the model’s capacity to account for variance in behavioral intention further improved to 62.7%. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, susceptibility, severity, and law enforcement have significant impact on behavioral intention.

Passenger muscle responses in emergency braking events with reclined seating

Emergency braking can generate forward displacement that may influence the effectiveness of protection in collisions, especially for passengers. The development of automated vehicles has enabled the diversification and rationalization of sitting positions, including reclined seating. However, the passenger response in pre-crash scenarios in reclined seating differs from that in standard seating, which poses different requirements for biofidelic human body models (HBMs) to evaluate passenger injuries in collisions. This study conducted emergency braking trials in vehicles at an initial velocity of 80 km/h. Five volunteers were exposed to approximately 1 g manual emergency braking (MEB), and the muscle responses at the front passenger seat with backrest angles of 25°, 45°, and 65° were recorded. The electromyography obtained from 14 muscles of the neck, torso, and lower extremity were normalized using maximum voluntary contractions (MVCs). In the quiet sitting phase, the activity levels were low (< 5% MVC) in all muscles for the three sitting positions. During emergency braking, the muscles are activated to restrict the body motion. There were differences in muscle amplitude and onset time in different backrest angles, with higher muscle activity levels in most muscles in a reclined sitting position. In particular, the sternocleidomastoid, rectus abdominis, and vastus medialis showed different patterns in the peak and steady-state phases. We found that the tibialis anterior was consistently activated at a lower level in all sitting postures (< 8% MVC), which indicates limited support of the shank for the body. The data provided in the paper are presented in corridors and intended for use in the development and validation of HBMs with active muscle models to simulate evasive maneuvers that potentially occur before a crash in the reclined sitting position.

Restraint use within vehicles transporting child occupants in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: An observational study

ObjectiveThis observation study aimed to describe the frequency and type of restraint use for child occupants within private motor vehicles in the emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). MethodsAn overt, on-road observation study was conducted by trained observers who recorded the restraint use of the occupants while travelling in private motor vehicles with at least one child aged approximately ten years and younger in Dubai. ResultsOverall, 2000 vehicles were observed transporting 2940 child occupants estimated to be aged 10 years and younger. Over one-half of the drivers were observed to be using their seatbelt (60.0%) and over one-half of front-seat passengers were observed to be using their seatbelt (53.3%). One-half of the observed child occupants were unrestrained (51.7%), and a further 8.3 percent were seated unrestrained on an adult's lap. Based on the seating position and restraint type within the vehicle, child restraint use was classified into appropriate, seatbelt and inappropriate use, and the results showed that more than one-half of the child occupants were inappropriately restrained (59.9%). There was a significant relationship between the driver's seatbelt use and inappropriate restraint use for at least one child occupant in the vehicle (χ2 (1) = 75.450, p < 0.001). Unrestrained drivers were more likely to have at least one inappropriately restrained child in their vehicle (28.4%) than to have all children appropriately restrained (8.8%). ConclusionsDespite the introduction of child restraint system (CRS) legislation in 2017 that mandated the use of CRS for child occupants aged four years and younger while travelling in a private motor vehicle in the UAE, this study observed a high proportion of unrestrained or inappropriately restrained child occupants than expected. These findings highlight an urgent need for greater enforcement of this legislation and awareness programs about the significant injury risks for unrestrained or inappropriately restrained child occupants in the UAE.

A unidirectional secondary sound source for local active noise control in enclosures

Directional secondary sources are beneficial for local active noise control in cabins with multiple seats. In this paper, a method of designing a unidirectional compound sound source composed of two units is introduced. A prototype was implemented using two closed-box speakers and an analog circuit, and the directivity of the compound source was measured in the anechoic chamber to verify the effectiveness of the proposed design method. Furthermore, the sound radiation characteristics of the compound sound source in a car cabin are reported and analyzed. The average sound pressure level at the driver's seat and rear seats is reduced by over 3.5 dB and 8.3 dB respectively in the frequency range from 125 Hz and 500 Hz when a single loudspeaker box located at the front passenger's seat is replaced by the compound sound source.

Variation of the secondary acoustic paths from loudspeakers at the seat shoulder in an automobile cabin

The secondary path is essential in the design of adaptive active noise control systems, and it varies with several factors in practical implementation. In this paper, the acoustic responses from secondary loudspeakers installed at the shoulder of the front passenger seat to the error microphones at the passenger's ears in an automobile cabin are measured, when the factors including the passenger movement, the seat posture and the passenger number change. The upper limit frequency where the phase variation is within 90 deg. compared to the reference position is analyzed. The results show that the state of both the passenger head and the seat back determines the lowest upper limit frequency among all the factors under investigation. If multiple factors change at the same time, the upper limit frequency will be further reduced.

Injury comparisons between paired drivers and front-seat passengers in frontal collisions using publicly available crash and injury data.

Forensic engineers and crash safety researchers sometimes use the injuries of a seatbelted occupant to infer the injury risk of an unbelted occupant in the same crash, had they instead been wearing a seatbelt. It is unclear, however, whether this inference is valid or how often two occupants in the same collision have similar injuries. Here, we sought to compare the injury outcomes between drivers and front-seat passengers in frontal collisions using real-world collision data. We compared the injury severity, quantified using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), of 22 injury categories between front-seat occupants with matching seatbelt use and airbag deployment in single-event frontal collisions recorded in the publicly available National Automotive Sampling System, Crashworthiness Data System (years 1993-2015) database to assess whether they had similar severity injuries. We analyzed the four combinations of seatbelt use and airbag deployment and all seatbelt/airbag conditions combined. In only 3 of 88 combinations of injuries and seatbelt/airbag conditions did more than 50% of occupant pairs have the same AIS score, although the related confidence intervals showed these proportions were not significantly greater than 50%. In contrast, we found 19 combinations of injuries and seatbelt/airbag conditions where one occupant was consistently injured more severely than the other. Our findings show that injury outcome is not similar for both front-seat occupants in the same frontal collision with similar seatbelt and airbag conditions; however, one may be able to predict that one occupant would be more severely injured than their fellow occupant.

“Current incidence of injuries in Iran; findings of STEPS survey 2021”

BackgroundThe updated epidemiology of injuries at the national and sub-national levels are required for policymakers to effectively handle the burden of injuries. This paper aimed to assess the incidence and risk factors of different injuries in Iran based on a recent national survey. MethodsWe used data from Iran Stepwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) Survey 2021, a population-based study in urban and rural areas of Iran's 31 provinces. A multistage clustered probability design and weighting adjustments were used to select eligible individuals and generate estimations. We estimated the incidence of injuries, assessed sociodemographic variables, and identified potential behavioral risk factors associated with injuries, and results were reported for sociodemographic and geographic stratifications. ResultData from 27,874 participants of the STEPS survey were assessed, of which 1538 (5.5 %, 95 % CI: [5.2–5.8]) reported having an injury in the past 12 months. Falls (44.4 %) were the most common cause of injury, followed by road traffic injury (21.7 %) and exposure to mechanical forces (16.5 %). Except for falls and burns, males had a higher proportion of all types of injuries. Logistic regression analysis showed that being male (OR: 1.7, [1.5, 2.0]) and being an occasional or heavy alcohol drinker (OR: 2.0, [1.3, 3.0] and OR: 2.7, [1.7, 4.1] respectively) were significant risk factors associated with road traffic injuries. Seatbelt use was 90.0 % among both drivers and front-seat passengers, while the use of safety car seats for children was as low as 9.4 %. Injury incidence varied significantly among provinces, with the highest incidence among males observed in Razavi Khorasan (11.2 %) and among females observed in Tehran (12.0 %). ConclusionThis study investigated the updated epidemiology of injuries in Iran and revealed socioeconomic and geographic disparities across country. This epidemiological information can be used to modify injury prevention programs.

Repositioning forward-leaning passengers by seatbelt pre-pretensioning

Objective The study determined the seatbelt pre-pretensioner force needed and the time required to reposition average male front-seat passengers from forward-leaning to upright using finite element simulations of the Active SAFER Human Body Model (Active SHBM). Methods The Active SHBM was positioned in an initial forward-leaning position (29° forward from upright) on a deformable vehicle seat. A pre-pretensioner was modeled as a pre-loaded spring and its ability to reposition the forward-leaning Active SHBM to an upright position was simulated for twenty-four different pre-crash conditions. Four parameters were varied: (1) Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) active with 11 m/s2 or no AEB, (2) type of seatbelt system: Belt-In-Seat or B-pillar, (3) pre-pretensioner activation time (200 ms before, 100 ms before, or at the same time as AEB ramp-up), and (4) pre-pretensioner force (200 N, 300 N, 400 N, 600 N). The first thoracic vertebra fore-aft (T1 X) trajectories were compared against a reference upright position to determine the force and time needed to reposition and the effectiveness of repositioning in the different conditions. Results The lowest force enabling repositioning in all simulations was 400 N (no AEB, Belt-In-Seat). It took about 350 ms. In the presence of AEB, activating the pre-pretensioner 200 ms before AEB and using 600 N pre-pretensioner force was needed for repositioning (taking 200 ms with Belt-In-Seat and 260 ms with B-pillar installations). Repositioning was faster and thus more effective with the Belt-In-Seat seatbelt in all simulations. Conclusions All four parameters (presence of AEB, type of seatbelt system, pre-pretensioner activation time and force) affected the repositioning ability and time required. Far from all combinations repositioned a forward-leaning average male occupant model, but those found to be effective and fast appear as a feasible option for vehicle safety systems to reposition out-of-position occupants during pre-crash events.

Car sickness in real driving conditions: Effect of lateral acceleration and predictability reflected by physiological changes

With the development of autonomous vehicles, car sickness may affect increasing numbers of car occupants. Car manufacturers have a real need to understand the causes of these symptoms, which occur mainly when car occupants are not engaged in a driving task. This study is the first to evaluate, in real driving conditions, the impact of lateral acceleration level and vehicle path predictability on car sickness incidence and severity, and the potential relationship with physiological changes. 24 healthy volunteers participated as front seat passengers in a slalom session inducing lateral movements at very low frequency (0.2 Hz). They were continuously monitored via physiological recordings and provided subjective car sickness ratings (CSR) after each slalom, using a 5-point likert scale. CSR reveal that (i) the greater the lateral acceleration and (ii) the less predictable the vehicle path, the more severe the car sickness symptoms in real driving conditions. An increase in several physiological parameters is also found simultaneously with higher CSR, demonstrating activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Moreover, the linear regression applied to our data suggests that these physiological parameters can be used to indicate car sickness severity. Moreover, the linear regression applied to our data suggests that the evolution of these physiological parameters may reflect the CSR level indicated by participants.

50‐1: Full area local dimming switchable privacy solution with color compensation

Multi display cockpit designs are increasingly popular and aim to provide the content not only to the driver, but also the co‐driver (front seat passenger). This poses a potential safety risk of driver distraction by some content intended for co‐driver entertainment. One potential solution to address it, is switchable (active) privacy allowing to control the display viewing modes.

Empowering Driver-Passenger Collaboration: Designing In-Car Systems with a Focus on Social Connectedness, Fairness, and Team Performance

Driving a car can be difficult when it comes to distractions caused by operating the in-vehicle infotainment system (IVIS). In-car passengers often help with performing IVIS-related tasks. However, an IVIS is often not designed with a focus on task collaboration. In this article, we focus on how to design in-car systems with the goal to support collaboration between a driver and a front-seat passenger. Based on infotainment-oriented tasks, we initially explore five key collaborative control concepts by means of an IVIS which differ from each other in terms of the number of available IVIS screens (one or two), access to menus (restricted and unrestricted), and the nature of performing tasks in parallel or one after the other. Results from a simulator study with N = 16 pairs show significant effects of the concepts on social collaboration in terms of perceived social connectedness (measured with sub-dimensions connectedness, affiliation, belongingness, companionship), team performance (coordination effectiveness and team cohesion), and fairness. We found that especially a dedicated passenger IVIS screen empowers front-seat passengers, reduces power dynamics, supports fairness, and minimizes driver distraction (caused by interacting passengers). We discuss the implications of these findings and posit recommendations to design future IVIS in passenger cars with improved driver-passenger collaboration by explicitly designing for balanced power roles, situational awareness, active communication, and a balance between drivers’ privacy and trust toward the passenger. Additionally, we outline a systematic overview of future work to explore the research field of driver-passenger collaboration in more breadth and depth.

Relative Safety Assessment for Positioning Children in Vehicles with Varying Levels of Advanced Safety Technologies

Recent studies suggest that advances in rear seat occupant protection are trailing while frontal crash prevention technologies have disproportionately improved front seat occupant safety. Therefore, the first objective of this study is to identify the safest seat for children by estimating injury severity by seat position using current crash data. The second objective of this study is to demonstrate that Level-2 and above (i.e., L2+) AVs will be significantly different from current vehicles regarding child injury severity, and therefore it is essential to find the safest seat for children in L2+ AVs. This study utilized data from the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) to estimate crash injury severity by seat position in children. This study used the Injury Severity Score (ISS) as its measure of crash severity. The mean ISS for restrained children sitting in the front passenger seat was 0.494 (for model year &gt; 2000 vehicles). The mean ISSs for second-row left and second-row right seats were 0.374 and 0.322, respectively. The second-row middle seat had 162, 98, and 71% lower mean ISSs than the front passenger, second-row left, and second-row right seats, respectively. Overall, in both restrained and unrestrained scenarios, the safest seat for a child was the second-row middle seat.

Analysis of Front Roof Header of Vehicle for Rollover Protection by using Ansys Software

Abstract: Inadequate roof strength in vehicles is a major concern as it greatly increases the risk of head and neck injuries for passengers involved in even minor rollover accidents. Despite this, many manufacturers continue to produce cars with inadequate roof strength. Rollover accidents are unfortunately quite common and often result in serious injuries, such as spinal and neck trauma. Even when wearing a seatbelt, front seat passengers can still be at risk of injury as they may be thrown from the vehicle or experience significant forces during the rollover. The key to reducing these risks lies in ensuring that the roof of the vehicle is strong enough to withstand the compressive forces of a rollover and provide enough living space for the occupants. While airbags and seat belts are important safety features, a strong roof is equally essential to protecting passengers. For this reason, we have undertaken a project to improve the strength of the front roof header in order to enhance the safety of vehicle occupants.