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Several similar real world pedestrian accidents are described and a number of different methods of reconstructing these accidents are reported. The results of full scale experimental reconstructions of two of the accidents using both dummies and cadavers as the pedestrian surrogate are presented. The effects on the pedestrian’s head contact with the vehicle of variations in the initial impact conditions are examined by computer simulation using the MADYMO two dimensional mathematical model. The reproduction of the vehicle damage resulting from pedestrian head contact in four of the accidents using an impactor is then described. The relative merits of different methods of reproducing accidents are considered and a methodology for the reproduction of real world accidents outlined.

The previous experimental results on the circular steel tubes reinforced by a FRP composite have shown that the external reinforcement by composite improve their crush strength not only because of its own strength but also through an iteraction with the enveloped tube sheet which reduces the folding wave length and changes the collapse mode from an unstable one to a stable one. Here, the influence of the external reinforcement by composite on the crushing behaviour of square tubes is investigated experimentally. The same trend is obtained for square tubes. The external reinforcement changes the crushing mode from a non compact one to a compact one. The highest relative specific energy of the reinforced tube with respect to that of the non reinforced tube is 2.44.