Pedestrian Protection Overview

Abstract The World Bank estimates that between 41% and 75% of all road traffic fatalities worldwide are pedestrians and that nearly 35% of all pedestrian fatalities are children. Three factors are important to fully understand a vehicle pedestrian collision. The environment, the vehicle and the pedestrian contribute to accidents and determine their outcome. Further, the accident can be divided into three parts on a time‐scale; pre‐, in‐ and post‐crash. In each of these time events, the environment, vehicle and road user are more or less influential factors important to consider. Our aim in this chapter is to describe the fundaments of vehicle‐pedestrian collisions, covering aspects like influencing factors of the collision, the vehicle structures responsible for pedestrian injuries and active‐ passive countermeasures from the injury biomechanics point of view.