Major Traffic Accidents Research Articles

The application for skull injury in vehicle–pedestrian accident

Vehicle–pedestrian impact is one of the major traffic accident types all over the world. In these accidents, head injury is the main factor that causes the pedestrian death. However, numerical human models that have been developed cannot be applied effectively in these accidents either because the head structure is not precise enough to show the local damage or because the model is too complex to ensure the computation efficiency. For instance, the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) of the TNO Hybrid III dummy model could be used for the prediction of skull fracture, and the contact point between the head and the vehicle could give an indication of where the injury occurred. However, the dummy model is not able to show the local stress and damage of the head that is shown in accident autopsy reports. Therefore, the anthropometry-based finite-element head and multibody knockdown pedestrian models have been developed. The knockdown human model cannot only simulate precisely the head damage and more accurate damage position but also improve the computing efficiency. Additionally, the parameter customisation technology is applied for the pedestrian model in order to get rid of using the standard pedestrian model in all cases. The purpose of this paper is to prove the validity for the new pedestrian model applied in accident simulation and optimisation. By reconstructing real-world vehicle–pedestrian impact accidents, the performance of the modelling method is evaluated. The results show that the method is very effective in finding an optimum solution and receiving enough exact head injury value.

NARKOTIKŲ PAVILIOTI AUDITORIJOS SUOLE NESĖDI

The authors‘ of the article assumption that the majority of traffic accidents are caused by drivers – drug and psychotropic substances abusers – is based on the findings of the European Union DRUID Project. Drug addiction is spreading rapidly in Lithuania. The statistical data of the Drug Control Department under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania prove that the majority of drug abusers are young people of 20–39 years of age. Young people whose efforts and time should be directed towards education and studies. The authors focus attention on the increasing delinquency among drug abusers and the lethal outcome of the drug overdosage. However, it is not a specific national feature. This phenomenon is widely spread from both time and geographical perspective. The established in vitro methods of detection at major extent facilitate the struggle against drug abuse and distribution. In many European cities this method is already being applied when detecting islands of cocaine abusers by the chemical analysis of communal sewage, thus quantitatively identifying the concentration of benzoilekgonin - the stable cocaine metabolite. The article provides a description of the SYNCHRON CX test for identification of cocaine in urine produced by „Beckman Coulter“. Key words: drugs, the metabolite of cocaine, urban wastewater treatment.

A new lateral impact warning system with grey prediction

Vehicle lateral impact is one of the major traffic collision accidents. Usually, this collision accident is caused when the target vehicle appears in the driver's blind spot during lane change or crowded urban travelling and the driver has not carefully observed the approaching vehicle from the rear and side mirrors. Hence, additional sensors need to be installed to measure the relative distance between two closing vehicles for active collision warning purpose. Generally, the lateral distance between two neighbouring vehicles is small compared with longitudinal distance: for crowded city traffic it is less than 1.5m. It is difficult to estimate accurately or assess the time-to-collision (TTC) based on a single relative distance index between two cars. Here, a novel two-indices TTC decision algorithm is proposed, which can distinguish the safe passing of neighbouring lanes from the essential dangerous lateral collision situation. In addition, the grey prediction theory is introduced to estimate the relative distance of two approaching vehicles one step ahead for TTC estimation to gain additional driver reaction time. The simulation results show that this strategy can create 0.5s extra time for the driver to take collision avoidance action.

Traumatic Pseudoaneurysm of the Descending Thoracic Aorta

A 39-year-old man presented with complaints of chest pain, dyspnea, and cough after a long-distance flight. He gave a history of having been involved in a major traffic accident 20 years ago in which he was run over by a truck, which resulted in extensive musculoskeletal injuries that necessitated several operations. He had been experiencing intermittent chest pain and dyspnea for 2 years. At the emergency department, a large upper-mediastinal mass was found on chest radiography (Figure, panel A). CT showed a large thoracic aortic aneurysm, and the patient was referred for cardiovascular MRI before surgery. This revealed a large …

Effects of Experimental Pulmonary Contusion on Respiratory Exchange and Lung Mechanics

CURRENT interest in chest injuries stems from both the casualties of the Southeast Asia conflict and the increasing numbers of survivors of major traffic accidents. Twenty-five percent of the 53,000 deaths from automobile accidents in 1965 were secondary to chest injuries, and in one fourth of these, pulmonary contusion played a major role. Pulmonary contusion alone carries an early mortality as high as 38%. 1 Whether the term pulmonary contusion, traumatic wet lung, or blast injury to the is used the clinical picture is essentially the same. Even with evidence of significant blunt trauma to the chest, patients often complain only of other injuries, and mild hemoptysis may be the only sign of lung contusion. Early radiographs of the chest are often normal. However, signs of increasing respiratory insufficiency, hypoxia, and pneumonitis develop characteristically within 24 to 36 hours. Blood gas analyses show progressive arterial oxygen desaturation and often

Biliary Cirrhosis

In the event of a traffic accident fatality, the death is reported as an “unusual death,” an inquest is conducted, and, if necessary, a forensic autopsy is performed to prove any causal relationship between the accident and the death, identify the vehicle at fault, and determine the cause of the accident. A forensic autopsy of a traffic accident fatality needs to both determine the cause of death and identify the mechanism of injury, an analytical task that requires observation of three major traffic accident factors: the body, the vehicles involved, and the scene of the accident. Also crucial to determining the cause of death is the process of looking into whether the people involved in the accident had any diseases that might affect their driving performance or were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In order to reduce the number of people killed in traffic accidents, it will be important to promote joint research uniting forensic medicine, clinical medicine, automotive engineering, and road engineering, take measures to limit the impact of inebriated pedestrians and pedestrians suffering from dementia, and ensure proper screening of alcohol and illegal drug consumption in drivers.