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AIS 1 neck injuries has become the most common disabling injury in vehicle crashes. Research has shown that there are variations in rear impacts causing short- and long-term disability to the neck. Therefore impacts in where the duration of symptoms differ need to be separated in analyses. Crash severity is usually measured as change of velocity. The correlation between injury risk and impact severity parameters based on acceleration levels is to a high extent unknown. Since 1995, approx. 15,000 vehicles on the Swedish market have been equipped with crash pulse recorders measuring the acceleration time history in rear impacts. In the present study, the results from crash recording of 34 real life rear impacts were analysed where the change of velocity and the crash pulse were measured. The injury status of the 49 front occupants was classified as no symptoms, or symptoms less or more than 1 month after the impact.

Dummy responses in a crash test can vary depending not only on the change of velocity but also on how the impact was generated. Literature reporting how acceleration pulses can vary in cars impacted in different configurations is limited. The aim of this study was to collect and categorise different acceleration pulses in 3 different types of rear collision. The acceleration pulse resulting from a solid, 1000 kg, mobile barrier test at 40% overlap and an impact velocity of 15 km/h was studied for 33 different cars. Seven cars were impacted at 100% overlap at higher impact velocities using the same mobile barrier. Acceleration pulses from two different car types in real-world collisions producing a similar change of velocity were also analysed. The results from the barrier tests show that a similar change of velocity can be generated by a large variety of pulse shapes in low velocity rear impacts.