Injury Reduction in Vehicle to Pedestrian Collision Using Deployable Pedestrian Protection System in Vehicles

Head injuries are the main source of road fatalities when a pedestrian or other vulnerable road user (VRU) such as cyclist or motorcyclist is involved in an accident with the approaching high speed vehicle. The frontal part of a car such as engine hood (bonnet), lower-windshield area and A-pillars are the possible location of head impact in these accidents. The head impact with hard points located in these areas may result in the fatal head injuries. The effect of impact can be reduced by using the deployable pedestrian protection systems (DPPS) such as pop-up hoods and windshield airbag in the vehicle. The study indicates how these systems are effective in reducing the fatalities in pedestrian accidents and how to evaluate the performance of these deployable systems. The pedestrian & VRU road fatalities contribute to more than 33percent of total road fatalities in India. Worldwide regulations for pedestrian protection include the evaluation of head injuries at a relative speed of 35kmph. However, the actual impact can occur at higher speeds many times which results in high severity accidents which may lead to death of the victim. The study shows how the Active Hood (also called pop-up hood) reduces the risk on sever injuries in these accidents.