Head Impact Reconstruction - HIC Validation and Pedestrian Injury Risk

Experimental reconstructions of pedestrian accidents involving head injury sustained primarily from hood impact were conducted to determine the relationship between HIC and injury severity. The purpose was to establish the capability of predicting pedestrian head injury severity in simple laboratory tests.

The reconstruction test results were analyzed by a median ranking technique to provide a family of curves showing probability of injury of AIS 3, 4, and 5 severities as a function of HIC. This analysis method was used by Prasad and Mertz [1]¹ to develop a head injury risk curve from cadaver head impact test data. Results of the two analyses were compared to determine the degree of agreement between the HIC/injury-risk relationship derived from controlled experiments with cadavers and that derived from uncontrolled accidents involving live people.

The reconstruction test results also were used to derive a relationship between head injury risk (HIC) and vehicle impact speed. Specific accident cases are cited to illustrate the use of this relationship by the accident reconstructionist in estimating probable vehicle speed from injury outcome.