A Comparison Study on Head Injury Risk in Car-to-Pedestrian Collisions in Changsha and Hannover

Vehicle traffic accidents have been extensively studied in various countries, but any differences in traffic accidents the studied areas have not yet been adequately investigated. This paper aims to make a comparison study of head injury risks and kinematics of adult pedestrian accidents in Changsha, China, and Hannover, Germany, as well as correlate calculated physical parameters with injuries observed in real-world accidents of the two cities. A total of 20 passenger cars versus adult pedestrian accidents were collected from the two areas of study, including 10 cases from Changsha and 10 cases from Hannover. Virtual accident reconstructions using PC-Crash and MADYMO software were performed. The in-depth study focused on head injury risks while kinematics were conducted using statistical approaches. The results of the analysis of the Chinese data were compared with those of the German data. The results indicated that differences regarding average head contact time, WAD, and scatter of head impact points on windshield were identified. Similarities in car front shape corridors, average head impact velocity and impact angle, relationships between vehicle impact velocity and head impact velocity, HIC value, and throw distance were shared by the two areas. The present results suggested that the EEVC test procedures can be considered as a basis of test procedures for pedestrian protection in China.