Car Occupant Ejection in 919 Sampled Accidents in the UK-1983-86

870323

02/23/1987

Event
SAE International Congress and Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
Vehicle and injury data from 919 accidents in the UK are analysed for frequency, cause, and consequences of occupant ejection. Injury consequences are shown to be severs, the fatality rate rising with ejection by a factor of 4.3 among unrestrained occupants, and evidence is offered that ejection prevention would reduce injury levels to those of not-ejected occupants.
The rear window was found in this sample to be the most frequent ejection route, followed by side doors, side glass, and the tailgate.
Complete ejection was slightly more frequent from hatchbacks than from saloons. Door openings are analysed for frequency and release mechanism, and the ejection risk for exposed occupants is seen to be very high.
These results are considered in relation to possible countermeasures, of which restraint use is shown to be by far the most effective, and bonded laminated or glass-plastic glazing is particularly recommended for rear windows.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/870323
Pages
14
Citation
Green, P., Robertson, N., Bradford, M., and Bodiwala, G., "Car Occupant Ejection in 919 Sampled Accidents in the UK-1983-86," SAE Technical Paper 870323, 1987, https://doi.org/10.4271/870323.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 23, 1987
Product Code
870323
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English