Injury patterns compared to injury costs in car to car accidents of belted occupants with major injuries

The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the injury patterns of belted occupants as a function of different collision scenarios in a major accident sample. 1,100 car to car accidents involving major bodily injuries (AIS 2+) have been analyzed for the research on the injury pattern and injury costs of belted car occupants in isolated frontal, side and rear-end collisions. 41 accidents with airbag-equipped cars fulfilling the selection criteria were analyzed for purposes of comparison. The costs of injury to society do not correlate with AIS and ISS rated injury severity. Leg injuries dominate injury costs in frontal collisions. In a side collision for the belted occupant positioned on the struck side of the vehicle outstanding high costs were seen for the bony pelvis, followed by upper leg. The influence of the seating position and the degree of damage on the injury severity had been examined. Frontal collisions were also analyzed to gain insight into the influence of occupant characteristics and collision types on the injury pattern. Angled frontal collisions were more frequent when compared with longitudinal frontal impacts. Here a high frequency of head and neck injuries were registered. In addition, the effect of the age and gender of the belted driver in frontal collisions was compared.