NEAR AND FAR-SIDE ADULT FRONT PASSENGER KINEMATICS IN A VEHICLE ROLLOVER. IN: OCCUPANT AND VEHICLE RESPONSES IN ROLLOVERS

Rollover accidents are a significant safety issue. In this chapter, the authors report on a study in which U.S. accident data (NASS-CDS, 1992-1998) was analyzed to determine interior contacts and injuries for front-seated occupants in rollovers. The chapter is from a comprehensive text on occupant and vehicle responses in rollovers. The authors assessed the injury distribution for belted and unbelted, non-ejected drivers and right front passengers (RFP) for single-event accidents where the leading side of the vehicle rollover was either on the driver or passenger door. Results showed that serious injuries were most common to the head and thorax for both the near and far-side occupants. Serious spinal injuries were more frequent for the far-side occupants. The authors compared their field injury data with data obtained from simulated rollovers; based on these simulations, the kinematics of the front far-side occupant differed from that of the near-side. For the belted far-side occupant, the torso often slipped out of the belt which allows excursion towards the near-side occupant. However, for the belted near-side occupant, the shoulder belt remained on the upper body during the initial roll phase. The authors note that dummy kinematics from the simulation help explain the frequency of serious head and thorax injuries reported in the field.