Relative Frequency of U.S. Pedestrian Injuries Associated With Risk Measured in Component-Level Pedestrian Tests

2019Final ReportMallory, A., Yarnell, B., Kender, A., & Stammen, J. (2019, May). Relative frequency of U.S. pedestrian injuries associated with risk measured in component-level pedestrian tests (Report No. DOT HS 812 658). Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.PDFTech ReportDOT HS 812 658Pedestrian safetyPedestriansInjuriesPedestrian-vehicle crashesVulnerable road usersNTDBNational Trauma Data BankPCDSUnited StatesUnited States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationMallory, AnnYarnell, BrittanyKender, AllisonStammen, JasonTransportation Research CenterUnited States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionU.S. pedestrian injury cases were analyzed to estimate the frequency of injuries associated with impacts to vehicle components that could be tested by available component-level pedestrian test equipment. The relative frequencies of injuries that could be affected by pedestrian headform tests, upper legform tests, and lower legform tests were compared. This comparison of injuries that could potentially be reduced or mitigated if vehicle performance were improved relative to each of the three test procedures was intended to evaluate the potential for each type of test to improve pedestrian protection. Pedestrian cases were drawn from the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) from 2007 to 2014 and the Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS), collected from 1994 to 1998. Using both injury datasets, the percentages of pedestrians with injury to a body region evaluated by a given test procedure and attributed to a vehicle impact source expected to be in that procedure\u2019s test zone was estimated for all three component test procedures. Among serious and fatal injury cases (MAIS 3+), 37.8 percent of the total expected potential effects of the test procedures were associated with the headform test, 24.6 percent were associated with the upper legform test and 37.6 percent were associated with the lower legform test. When the analysis was limited to more severe injuries (MAIS 4+ or fatal cases), the influence of the headform test was substantially higher, while the relative influence of the upper legform and lower legform tests was reduced.79