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Injuries of the Occipitoatlantoaxial (Occ-C2) region (also known as atlanto-occipital injuries) are the most common form of cervical injury in children aged ten years and younger. The crash studied in this paper is unique in that there were three children ages 3, 6 and 7 involved in a frontal crash with a delta V of 28mph with each child receiving a nonfatal Occ-C2 injury of varying degrees. The 3 and 6 year-old children were remarkably similar in height and weight to the 3 and 6 year-old Hybrid III ATD's. Also, unique to this case is the fact that the right rear 6 year-old occupant likely sustained an Occ-C2 injury prior to impact with the frame of the front passenger seat. This crash environment was recreated utilizing MADYMO occupant simulation software. The models for the Hybrid III 3 and 6 year-old ATDs were used to represent the occupants in this crash.

Monitoring head accelerations as an indicator of possible brain injury may lead to faster identification of injury and treatments. This study investigates the skull-coupling of a tri-axial accelerometer mounted to a back molar and compares it with a tri-axial accelerometer inserted in the boney ear canal. These tri-axial accelerometers were mounted to three post mortem human surrogate (PMHS) skulls, and compared with a rigid, skull-mounted laboratory sensor reference cube. Each specimen was subjected to both a high-g loading from a vertical drop tower and a low frequency cyclic loading from a shaker device. The specimens were subjected to an approximate 150g input acceleration on the drop tower, and up to 10g at a frequency of 9Hz on the shaker device. Each specimen was tested on all three of the anatomical axes on both the drop tower and the cyclic shaker.