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The number of traffic deaths in Japan was 4,612 in 2011. Looking at the road accident fatalities, it revealed that pedestrians accounted for the highest number in 2011 (1,686, 36.6%). To develop safety countermeasures to decrease the severity of injuries and to reduce the number of deaths in traffic accidents, the detailed characteristics of pedestrian injury in vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes are necessary. The purpose of this study is to understand the scenarios of vehicle accidents in which pedestrians suffer fatal injuries. In the present study, we investigated the characteristics of pedestrian injuries in fatal crashes from accident analyses and compared them to head injury severity levels in impact tests against a road pavement and vehicle contact surfaces.

The Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP) was launched in 1995 in order to improve car safety performance. According to this program, installation conditions of safety devices and the results for braking performance and full- frontal crash test are published every year. The side impact test was introduced in 1999. In 2000, the offset frontal crash test was also introduced. From the viewpoint of such a diversification of the crash tests, an overall assessment method for the safety of cars which reflects road accidents has been demanded. In this study, we have examined a new overall assessment method capable of reflecting the traffic accident situation in Japan using methods employed or planned by USA-NCAP, Euro-NCAP, TUB-NCAP and others as references. As the basic concept, JNCAP conducts three types of crash tests including the full-frontal crash test, offset frontal crash test, and side impact test to assess the dummy injury parameters.