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From past experience, crash accelerations in CART Champ Cars during 2000 and 2001 would have caused head injuries at a 15% occurrence rate and neck injuries at a 7.5% occurrence. In 28 incidents in 2000 and 2001 involving 33 drivers, there were no cervical fractures or dislocations, one significant, but minor head injury and 8 instances of minor neck complaint, all of which resolved spontaneously within three weeks. One driver lost racing time. This on-track experience supports the laboratory data previously published and demonstrates the efficacy of the HANS® * device in substantially reducing the risk of head and neck injury in motorsports. (*HANS® is a registered trademark and an acronym for Head and Neck Support.)

Driver and passenger comfort, as related to automotive seats, is a growing issue in the automotive industry. As this trend continues, automotive seat designers and developers are generating a greater need for more anthropometrically accurate tools to aid them in their work. One tool being developed is the JOHN software program that utilizes three-dimensional solid objects to represent humans in seated postures. Contours have been developed to represent the outside skin surfaces of three different body types in a variety of postures in the sagittal plane. These body types include: the small female, the average male, and the large male.

Auto and boat racers suffer fatigue and injury from loading of their necks. While racing, a driver's neck often becomes fatigued because it must support the weight of the head and helmet. In crashes, extreme motions of a driver's unrestrained head relative to the restrained torso cause excessive loads in the driver's neck. These neck loads between the head and torso can cause severe or fatal injuries such as spinal dislocations and basilar skull fractures. A new type of head and neck support has been developed that restrains the driver's head relative to their torso to reduce undesirable head motions and neck loads that cause fatigue and injury. This paper describes recent work, using computer crash simulations, crash dummy tests, and driver experiences, to better understand head and neck injury in racing and to evaluate the performance of a new head and neck support.