Technical Paper
Considerations for Head-Injury Categorization via NASS Analysis
2017-03-28
2017-01-1430
The present study had three objectives: (1) define a reasonable number of categories to bin head injuries, (2) develop an overarching risk function to estimate head-injury probability based on injury probabilities pertaining to those subordinate categories, and (3) assess the fidelity of both the overarching function and approximations to it. To achieve these objectives, we used real-world data from the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), pertaining to adult drivers in full-engagement frontal crashes. To provide practical value, we factored the proposed US New Car Assessment Program (US NCAP) and the corresponding Request for Comments from the government. Finally, the NASS data stratifications included three levels of injury (AIS1+, AIS2+, AIS3+), two levels of restraint (properly-belted, unbelted), and two eras based on driver-airbag fitment (Older Vehicles, Newer Vehicles).