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The damage pattern of about 30% of accident vehicles with injured occupants corresponds to that created in offset head-on collisions. An accident reconstruction method using the vehicles' deformation energies as operands is introduced for this collision type. The parameters so determined are compared for accidents both with and without glance-off, and their effect on the different injury mechanisms of the belted driver is discussed. A theory is suggested regarding the cause of serious injuries to the lower extremities in glance-off accidents, and is supported by examples. To confirm the results crash tests involving glance-off are carried out.

The purpose of this research was to present and analyze a previously unreported mechanism of injury within the automotive crash environment - spinal burst or compression fractures due to a vertical force component. Spinal burst fractures are comminuted fractures of the vertebral body which are often associated with retropulsed bone fragments into the spinal. Compression fractures are less traumatic fractures of the vertebral body with minimal comminution. Both fracture types can have varying degrees of neurologic deficit. The mechanism of injury is hypothesized to be a high energy compressive load along the axis of the spine initiated through the buttocks and pelvis or through torso augmentation (inertial loading of the lumbar spine by the torso). Four crashes are presented as evidence of this injury mechanism within the automotive crash environment: two in the United States and two in Germany.