Technical Paper
Wrap Around Distance WAD of Pedestrian and Bicyclists and Relevance as Influence Parameter for Head Injuries
2015-04-14
2015-01-1461
During most pedestrian-vehicle crashes the car front impacts the pedestrian and the whole body wraps around the front shape of the car. This influences the head impact on the vehicle. Meanwhile the windscreen is a major impact point and tested in NCAP conditions. The severity of injuries is influenced by car impact speed; type of vehicle; stiffness and shape of the vehicle; nature of the front (such as the bumper height, bonnet height and length, windscreen frame); age and body height of the pedestrian; and standing position of the pedestrian relative to the vehicle front. The so called Wrap Around Distance WAD is one of the important measurements for the assessment of protection of pedestrians and of bicyclists as well because the kinematic of bicyclists is similar to that of pedestrians. For this study accidents of GIDAS were used to identify the importance of WAD for the resulting head injury severity of pedestrians and bicyclists.