A Computational Investigation on Seat Belt Use for Pregnant Drivers in Airbag Equipped Automobiles

Pregnant women are a vulnerable and sensitive group in road traffic accidents, prone to sustaining varying levels of injury following an automobile crash accident. The objective of this research is to investigate various frontal impacts that pregnant women may undergo through simulations with a computational model of the pregnant driver, ‘Expecting’. Injuries when the seat belt is properly used in an airbag equipped automobile are compared with the cases where the seat belt is not worn by the pregnant driver. Displacements and strains occurring in the uterus are presented as well as injury criteria such as HIC, 3ms maximum and maximum VC in order to demonstrate the injury levels. The responses of the pregnant driver model in varying accident conditions particularly to demonstrate the injuries that they may be exposed to when the seat belt is not worn in airbag equipped automobiles emphasise that the air bags are supplementary restraint systems, and not meant to replace seat belts.