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This study deals with the question whether or not a “braking with maximum deceleration” represents a specific physical load situation for the occupants of a car. For this purpose, a literature study was performed to determine the relevance of symptoms concerning whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) of car occupants who were involved in traffic accidents with low accident severity. Additionally, test drives with full braking cars were conducted to determine the load situation of the neck for human test persons. Dummies were used too, which were equipped with measuring components at the head and thorax to identify the effective acceleration/deceleration and to compare these values to scientific approved characteristic deceleration values and to the existing neck injury criteria. Finally, the likelihood of occurrence of symptoms in terms of a neck injury was evaluated from the medical and biomechanical point of view.

Accident documentations on GIDAS (German In-Depth-Accident Study) from 1999 to 2005 are used for this study dealing with the effectiveness of the side airbag protection for car occupants. An analysis of real world accidents was carried out by ARU-MUH (Accident Research Unit - Medical University Hannover). The data were collected based on the spot documentation in time after an accident event. Based on the accident sampling process, the results of this study are representative for the German traffic accident situation. In order to determine the influence and the effectiveness of airbags, only those accident configurations with comparable conditions on impact direction are used for the study, therefore only cases with impact to the compartment, a delta-v-range 5 to 50 km/h and for struckside seated belted occupants were selected.

Due to protection applicances in the car, fewer persons sustain injuries in the course of traffic accidents. It can be pointed out that the injury pattern of car occupants was visibly changed by the seat belt, in earlier years the windscreen and steering wheel could hardly still be regarded as injury sources, but in the current situation with belt using of over 90% the injuries of all injured car drivers occur under other circumstances: 19% of all injured car drivers suffered injuries by the steering wheel, 20% by the dashboard, 29% by belt load and 14% caused by parts of the footroom region. It can be summarized that the present car safety measures did not avoid all major injuries and lower limb injuries occur relatively often. This study will explain the injury mechanisms of lower limb injuries and show demands for car developments and dummy test work.