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By accurately reconstituting accidents whose parameters are well known from multidisciplinary accident investigation, it is possible to associate forces and accelerations values with injuries sustained by occupants involved in in-the-field accidents. In this study, two in-the-field accidents, their reconstruction conducted by using dummies as occupants, and their reconstruction then with human cadavers are analysed. These accidents reconstructions allow to associate and compare accident occupants injuries with acceleration forces, injuries criteria values measured on dummies, and, on the other hand, accelerations, injuries criteria values, injuries sustained by cadavers during the second accident reconstruction.

In this paper are analysed the results of ten accident reconstructions of 5 frontal actual car traffic accidents. These accidents involved 9 restrained occupants, and were reconstructed first with 50th percentile dummies and then with human cadavers. The results of these reconstructions are analysed in order to compare the injuries sustained in real accident first, with the injury criteria values recorded on dummies, and second with injuries and injury criteria values found on cadavers. The results show that an AIS 3 head injury in actual accident could correspond to a low value of HIC recorded on dummy, that there is a large scatter in chest injury criteria related to chest injuries, and that if we need a protection for almost all occupants in frontal impact, we have to choose chest injury criteria value lower than the proposed one.

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.

Experimental car-pedestrian collisions were performed with a modified PART 572 dummy and cadavers; they involved some reconstructions of real accidents. These collisions brought to light the differences between the kinematics and the impact responses when dummy and human subject are compared under identical and realistic test conditions to simulate a pedestrian struck sideways. These differences are mainly due to the overall relative stiffness of the PART 572 dummy when compared to cadavers. Same-type collisions were therefore carried out again with other dummies which were designed so as to simulate human response in lateral impact better; thus they were also assumed to display better kinematics as pedestrians. APROD and ONSER dummies were used; when compared to PART 572, their flexibility and deformation capabilities are greater, in particular as regards their thoraxes and shoulders.