Technical Paper
Requirements for the evaluation of the risk of injury to the ankle in car impact tests
2001-06-04
2001-06-0208
Injuries to the lower leg are still a frequent occurrence in frontal crashes and the most serious injuries have been found to be associated with the ankle region (pilon, calcaneal and talar neck fractures). These injuries are not only of a high severity, they are also associated with long-term impairment, which contributes significantly to the societal cost associated with road traffic accidents. In order to reduce these injuries, the ability to determine the potential injury risk in legislative crash tests as well as the capability to assess the performance of proposed enhanced safety measures in the vehicle footwell region is essential. If this is to be achieved a biofidelic assessment tool with appropriate injury criteria is required. In Europe, the protection afforded against injury in frontal impacts is currently assessed by the Hybrid III dummy in an offset deformable barrier test.