Injury Mechanism Analysis of Occupants in Road Crashes

Road accident is considered as a critical worldwide problem having its ranked position in terms of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) going upward in near future. The statistics of fatalities and permanently disabled injuries with huge accident associated costs over the past decades undoubtedly represent Thailand to be inflicted with a burning concern of major cause of deaths from road crashes among the South East Asian region. More importantly, the economically active segment of population becomes the direct victims due to such curse. The estimated amount of about US$2500 million per year due to road crashes significantly affects the Thai economy representing about 3.4 percent of GNP. Such an important issue draining the national economy should be sincerely addressed by the concerned authorities involved in road safety. In-depth study on occupants injury though crash investigation and reconstruction has yet been practiced in Thailand. This paper addresses this well researched study of conducting in-depth analysis focusing on injury mechanism in road crashes. The research study attempts to understand the injury causation of the occupants from the crash dynamics by illustrating an investigated case. The events from pre-crash to post-crash phases clearly demonstrate the sequences of injury pattern of different body regions through the contacts with interior of vehicle and movements of body parts due to inertia of motion. This study also highlights the simulated scenario from two analysis software (PC-Crash and MADYMO) to describe the complete situation in a rear-end collision with estimated speed, force and acceleration that influenced injury sequences of occupants inside a pickup