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Technical Paper

IDENTIFICATION OF HEAD INJURY MECHANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH RECONSTRUCTION OF TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS.

1999-09-23
1999-13-0002
Head injuries often occur in frontal accidents, which are the most frequent type of vehicle collision and causes of injuries. Impact of the head with the steering wheel has been identified as the major source of lesions. In order to mitigate this contact, vehicles available on the European market are now equipped with airbags in addition to the safety belt. Although the inflation of airbags reduces the severity of head injuries in moderate to severe frontal crashes, lesions due to a contact with the steering wheel are still observed in collisions with a severity under the deployment threshold. The analyses of real-life accidents involving airbag deployments show that additional injuries occur in accidents of relatively slight severity. Accordingly, several authors have proposed to increase the deployment threshold of the airbag system for belted occupants.
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